Grants Supporting the Orthoptera Species File
The OSF grants committee received and evaluated 10 proposals by applicants from eight countries: Brazil, Cameroon, Colombia, Croatia, Germany, India, Pakistan, and South Africa. The four proposals listed below were funded. They have been selected based on the amount of data (images, specimen records, and sounds) expected to be added to the Orthoptera Species File. Also considered was the candidates’ expertise (if the proposal was related to a taxonomic research project) and the adequate budget.
Projects funded for 2021
1) Claudia Hemp (Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre, Germany)
Title: A photographic Safari to western and southern Tanzania and northern Kenya
2) Daniela Santos Martin Silva (Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Minas Gerais, Brazil)
Title: The grasshoppers (Orthoptera: Caelifera) from Panga Ecological Reserve, Minas
Gerais, Brazil
3) Oscar Cadena-Castañeda (Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas, Bogota,
Colombia)
Title: Study of Melanoplinae (Acrididae), Mecopodinae and Hexacentrinae
(Tettigoniidae) of high Andean forests and paramos of the eastern mountain range of
Colombia
4) Vanessa Catherine Kemsley Couldridge (University of Western Cape, South Africa)
Title: Acoustic Profiling of South African Orthopterans
Grant application guidelines
The Orthopterists’ Society, in cooperation with the Illinois Natural History Survey, provides funding for work in support of the Orthoptera Species File. Members of the Orthopterists’ Society are invited to apply. Applications should be sent to María Marta Cigliano.
Grants are available for a project as defined by the applicant. The project must involve benefit to the Orthoptera Species File. The usual benefit is the addition of images (photographs of the habitus and diagnostic details of type specimens, other reliably
identified museum specimens, living individuals in natural habitats), sound recordings, and/or geo-referenced specimen records. Any proposal that solely focuses on fieldwork or other systematic research without direct benefits to OSF will not be considered. Projects may be proposed for periods of one to three years.
Funding availability for 2022 will be announced in October 2021.
The proposals should include:
1. Project description (not more than five pages):
o Title
o Significance (highlighting the new data that will be added to OSF, preferably to taxa currently lacking images, sound recordings, distribution records, etc.)
o Objectives, methods and activities
o Timetable
2. If applicable, provide summary of the research project related to the proposal
3. Curriculum vitae
4. Budget in US$ (including justification of trips to museums, fieldwork, photographic equipment)
5. If applicable, provide letter of agreement/acknowledgement to work with the collection from the corresponding institution/curator including permission to add the images to OSF.
Proposals from graduate students should include a simple recommendation from their professor or advisor.
Preference will be given in relation to the amount of data added into OSF, i.e., the expected contribution to the considered taxa (dependent on already existing data). A detailed list of the species that are poorly illustrated in OSF and the data that is expected to be added as a result of the grant is highly recommended to be included in the proposal. Proposals involving images and sound recordings taken in the field will be funded depending on the “biogeographical value”, i.e. surveys in under-collected areas will be preferred over similar activities in well-worked terrain. Preference will be also given to applicants who demonstrate knowledge of the taxa involved. The methods, e.g., techniques for capturing images, will be likewise considered in the evaluation.
Also, priority will be given to applicants planning to document and photograph the types of Orthoptera species not yet documented by images in OSF, or who are planning to document the types from museums or other collections not easily accessible to researchers. Applications of curators for support of a qualified student to do this under his supervision will also be considered.
Important: A short financial and tasks report will be required from each grantee once the funding period is finished. The tasks report will be in a format suitable for publishing in Metaleptea.
If the candidate has received an OSF grant in a previous year, the tasks from the previous grant have to be finished and the report approved by the OSF Committee before applying for a new grant.