The ISE accepts both nominations and direct applications for all of its awards. Letters of support/recommendation from individuals with a proven commitment to the principles embodied by the Foundation are weighed more heavily than the style or polish of a proposal, although proposals and nominations will primarily be evaluated on the strength of the work undertaken by prospective recipients.
Criteria for Evaluating Nominations and Proposals
Field Fellowships
- Field Fellowships are awarded to individuals from a wide range of backgrounds (indigenous people, community leaders, activists and advocates, academics, etc.) with an outstanding history of work on applied ethnobiology or traditional resource rights issues, and/or working directly with local groups, communities and organizations;
- Funds can be applied to the costs of field and project work, or to cover an individual’s time; the fellowship is intended to support well-respected individuals undertaking excellent work, without attaching many strings or creating bureaucratic demands on their time;
- Priority is generally given to individuals undertaking their work outside of traditional financial and institutional support structures, and therefore in more significant need of support. Individuals working on these issues often have limited or sporadic support for their work, and there are very few formal positions in the field of applied ethnobiology.
Small Grants
- Grants are provided to local, community and/or indigenous projects or organizations, or to individuals working with them. Almost exclusive preference is given to small organizations lacking the infrastructure or social capital to apply to large funding bodies. Clear need, as well as the potential impact of the grant, are the central criteria.
- Funds can be used to support infrastructure, staff time, and other ad hoc needs, or to address pressing concerns as they arise.
Student Fellowships
- The ISE supports highly talented and promising Masters and PhD students whose research projects focus on some aspect of traditional resource rights or with some applied ethnoecology component.
- Fellows can be based at institutions in developed or developing countries, although preference is given to students in developing countries based in their home country institutions and to indigenous students in all countries.