Purpose

Proposal Specifications 

We solicit proposals for seed funding to support the development of a proposal for external funding (e.g., National Science Foundation). We encourage PIs to identify possible Bass Distinguished Visiting Scholars who could connect to the project, whether they are available or not; these may be named in the proposal but should be formally nominated via the Bass Distinguished Visiting Scholar process. Proposals should include at least one YIBS affiliate. Multidisciplinarity, especially across different units, will be considered a strength. 

The proposal should total no more than 3 pages (not including references or figures):

- Description and justification of the research scope using standard NSF or equivalent formatting

- Explanation of how this seed funding will contribute to the development of a proposal for external funding

- Statement of contributions to diversity, equity, and inclusion, including track record of contributions to DEI

- Itemized budget including travel, personnel, equipment, supplies, etc. (but not including Bass Distinguished Visiting Scholar budgets) and brief budget justification. Please use the budget template provided here.

Budget

The maximum budget for each proposal is $180,000. The total budget this year will be $360,000, with a target to fund two proposals. Projects should have a July 1st start date, with a total project duration of two years.

Schedule 

Proposals are due by May 19th, 2023. A committee will select proposals and notify PIs by June 5th, 2023. For any questions or concerns regarding the application process, contact timothy.sandrey@yale.edu

2022 Selected Projects 

Biodiversity of Marine Invertebrates in Indonesia

Casey Dunn, Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology & Curator of Invertebrate Zoology and Informatics, Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History

The Indonesian Archipelago is vast, with more than 17,000 islands spanning an area about the size of the continental USA. Indonesia is at the heart of the Coral Triangle, a diversity hotspot for many groups of marine organisms. This abundance and diversity of marine animals is fundamental to the Indonesian economy, culture, and well-being, and fascinating in its own right. Different explanations for this extreme diversity have been proposed. The primary challenge to teasing apart these explanations is that the biodiversity of marine invertebrates in Indonesia remains poorly described, and understood, relative to many other regions. The Yale team will work with Indonesian scientist Dr. Hagi Yulia Sugeha and her students at the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) to build local capacity for biodiversity research and initiate biological inventories and population studies of multiple marine species, including jellyfish. This project includes fieldwork in Indonesia, but that is paired with multiple visits by Indonesian scientists to Yale for training, museum work, and lab work. 

Coexistence of Tropical Understory Herbaceous Plant Communities 

Simon Queenborough, Musser Director, Yale Tropical Resources Institute & Senior Lecturer & Research Scientist, Yale School of the Environment

The coexistence of hundreds of sympatric species within tropical forests remains an unsolved problem. Most studies have focused on trees. However, fitness (the net integrated result of growth, survival, and reproduction across its entire life cycle) is hard to estimate for such long-lived organisms.  

In contrast, most herbaceous plants complete their life cycle in much less time. Thus, estimating the direct effects of factors driving population growth rates and fitness (rather than proxies such as growth or mortality) is much more tractable.

This project will monitor the distribution and population dynamics of a suite of herbaceous understory plant species over two years throughout a large environmentally variable 25-ha forest plot. We will link variation in local abiotic (topographic habitat, soil nutrients, water, and light availability) and biotic (local conspecific and heterospecific herb density, and local tree neighborhood) factors with functional trait data (seed size, specific leaf area and size) to (i) determine variation in population growth rates and (ii) to address the relative importance of spatiotemporal variation in these factors for mechanisms of coexistence and patterns of diversity.