Application Guidelines

The SDE/GWIS National Fellowships Program is proud to offer fellowships in 2013 to help increase knowledge in the fundamental sciences and to encourage research careers in the sciences by women. Endowment funds, mostly generated from bequests, provide the annual income that supports scientific research done by SDE/GWIS award winners. For the 2011-2012 funding cycle, we distributed nearly $70,000 in fellowships funds to ten deserving women scientists.

This year’s application deadline is January 15, 2013 with awards being announced on or before July 1, 2013 for funding in the 2013-2014 academic year. The SDE/GWIS National Council will determine exact fellowships amounts with the maximum allowable award being $10,000.

Expected Qualifications of the Candidate:

• Awards will be made to women holding a degree from a recognized institution of higher learning, of outstanding ability and promise in research, who are performing research at any institution in the U.S. or abroad.
  • Career level (e.g. graduate student vs. assistant professor) of the candidate will be taken into consideration when reviewing the proposals.
• Awards will be made irrespective of race, religion, nationality, creed, national origin, sexual orientation, or age.
• Active SDE/GWIS membership is encouraged at the time of and throughout the duration of funding. Membership must include both chapter and National dues.

Award Designations:

• The Fellowships are to be known as the Sigma Delta Epsilon (SDE), Eloise Gerry, Ethel K. Allen, Vessa Notchev and Nell I. Mondy Fellowships. The highest scoring SDE Fellowships designee shall be known as the Adele Lewis Grant/SDE Fellowships winner and the second-highest scoring designee shall be known as the Hartley Corporation/SDE Fellowships Winner.
• The funds available in any one year shall be the income from and contributions to the endowment accounts. The amount thus varies from year to year. The Fellowships Committee reserves the right to make no awards if no satisfactory applicants present themselves.

Terms of the Award:

• All recipients are encouraged to hold membership in SDE/GWIS. Click on this link for more information on how to become a member. The application processing fee is waived for GWIS members at the time of application (submitted by 11:59 pm, Eastern Standard Time, Jan. 15th, 2013). For non-members, the application fee is $50 at the time of submission. Click the following link to be taken to the Fellowships Applicant Fee process.  This is required to offset costs associated with the application review.
• The period of the award shall be one academic year (July 1st to June 30th). Recipients are not eligible for awards in subsequent years, though they may submit applications that include a significantly different proposal/project than the one for which they received a GWIS Fellowship award previously.

The recipient of an award will submit an abstract of 100 words or less along with a recent  photo of themselves (.jpg file) to SDE/GWIS Bulletin editor, Melanie McEwen (mlmcewen00[at]yahoo.com) as soon as the awards are announced. This will be used for publication purposes in the national SDE/GWIS quarterly publication The Bulletin and on the SDE/GWIS website.  

The recipient of the award will be expected to follow the main outline of the original proposal. If a major deviation from it is essential, approval must be obtained from the Fellowships Committee.

• All of the work in the proposal must be conducted by the PI of the grant. The fellowships applicant will be the one conducting the work, rather than using the award to support someone conducting work for them (e.g. the funds may not be used by a professor to support a graduate student).
• Fellowships funds may be used for such things as expendable supplies, small equipment to be used by the recipient (not for general use), publication of research findings, travel and subsistence while performing field studies, or travel to another laboratory for collaborative research. These costs must be clearly justified in the proposal and integral to the research design. Funds cannot be used for the following: tuition, child care, travel to professional meetings or to begin a new appointment, travel to another institution for coursework, living allowances or equipment of general use.
• A maximum of $10,000 may be requested – any proposals requesting over $10,000 will be disqualified.
• Supplementary Documentation may be required:
  • If human or animal subjects are used, an in-house animal subjects committee must evaluate the work, and an approval from the committee must be included in the application. If approval is pending at the time of application, documentation of approval must be provided to the Fellowships Committee before an award will be made.
  • Research involving field collections must show evidence of the proper collecting permits. If approval is pending at the time of application, documentation of approval must be provided to the Fellowships Committee before an award will be made.
  • Research involving cooperation with scientists from other sites/laboratories must include evidence of this collaboration (i.e. a letter from the host scientist).
• If for any reason the recipient is unable to initiate or complete the project, unexpended funds shall be returned to SDE/GWIS.
• At the end of the Fellowship, a one-page progress report, plus the annual expense report must be sent to SDE/GWIS Past-President Dr. Anne Pumfery. The fellowships winner’s supervisor must sign both documents, and Dr. Pumfery must receive it by May 15th, 2012. Any abstracts or reprints resulting from the proposed work must accompany the progress report. Please send both documents to progressreports@gwis.org. If the research extends beyond one year, submission of an annual progress report acceptable to the Fellowships Committee is required.
• Acknowledgement of support from an award is requested in pertinent publications, oral presentations and on the awardees’ curriculum vitae.
  

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Application Instructions

The entire application (see application checklist) must be received electronically as a SINGLE, COMPLETE .PDF by 11:59 pm, Eastern Standard Time on January 15, 2013. The reviewing committee reserves the right to reject any application not received electronically by the deadline (including processing fee AND letters of recommendation), any application that does not meet requirements, or is incomplete. These applications will be disqualified and will not be sent out for review. Committee decisions are final. The awards will be announced on or before July 1, 2013.

Note: Applicants may only submit one proposal in a given year.
SDE/GWIS Fellowships Coordinator:
Laurie B. Cook, Ph.D.
Biology Department, 217 Lennon Hall
The College at Brockport, State University of New York
350 New Campus Drive
Brockport, NY 14420
(585) 395-5757
Email: fellowshipsquestions@gwis.org