Niwot Ridge LTER Year 4 Request for Proposals
Request for Proposals
Niwot Ridge Long-term Ecological Research Program Yr 4
ELIGIBILITY. Any faculty member or group of faculty members involved with the Niwot Ridge LTER program is eligible to apply as PI (any faculty member can become involved with the NWT program by sending your name and address to the NWT LTER coordinator (anna.t.wright@colorado.edu or niwotridgelter@gmail.com) and attending science meetings).
SCOPE. The primary goal of these annual awards is to support LTER research and synthesis efforts, including filling gaps in current research to achieve LTER VII goals. Secondary goals include: enhancing the NWT research community by encouraging involvement of early- and midcareer researchers in the NWT program and enhancing our capacities to engage in broader impact activities. These awards are for one year, but can be renewed for multi-year projects. A faculty member can submit more than one proposal.
TYPES OF SUPPORT. We have funding to allocate to support GRAs and expenses related to field supplies and sample processing. We expect to give 8 awards, with the majority covering summer GRAs. The leadership team has also allocated three semester + summer GRA lines to core priority projects; you can read about these posted on Slack.
a) Graduate student support. The faculty member who is applying for support must be eligible to be a mentor for a graduate student. In this call, support can be requested for summer 2020. We will not fund students over 50% time or pay non-resident tuition or tuition outside CU-Boulder.
b) Supplies and sample processing. Funds can be used for field supplies and costs to run samples.
c) Travel. We will consider requests for non-local scientists for travel and lodging at MRS. Support for graduate student and postdoc travel to conferences will be covered in a separate RFP released in June.
TIMELINE. Application deadline is Wednesday, March 4th by 5pm MST. The scientific steering committee will evaluate proposals by March 11th and the executive committee will make decisions before spring break.
APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS
1. Cover sheet. Please fill out the google form (https://forms.gle/uR2XC3SRaQkZeXv96) to complete the required questions with your application. The google form can also be found on the NWT website, slack channel or by contacting the program coordinator.
2. Proposal. In 3 pages or less, provide a description of what you will do during the period of funding, and what you expect to accomplish (expected products may occur after the one-year funding period). Include clear statement about the hypothesis or general research question that you will be pursuing, an explanation of the rationale for the work, and the research approach or experimental plan you will take in the project. Include a timeline including research activities, presentations, and manuscript submissions. If you have received prior funding, please summarize what you did with that support and the status of these efforts. Please title this with your last name and upload as a PDF through the google form (https://forms.gle/uR2XC3SRaQkZeXv96).
3. Budget. A budget (in tabular form) and a narrative justification of all requested expenditures (1-page maximum; direct costs only). We will only be accepting summer GRA requests this year, so requests for academic-year GRAs will be automatically declined. You do not need to provide dollar amounts for GRAs, but please do provide dollar amounts for other expenses such as sample charges or field supplies. Table 1 (below) lists Arikaree Environmental Lab water and soil sample processing costs, including fees for fluorometer usage.
SELECTION CRITERIA
1. Proposed research and activities that support the goals and research activities in the NWT VII grant, particularly activities outlined in the proposal that are not currently otherwise supported or which may not be achieved without additional support. Please state how the proposed research relates to LTER VII hypotheses and research activities found in the proposal (hint: this means that you MUST HAVE read and reference specific parts of the NWT VII proposal, https://nwt.lternet.edu/s/2016proposal.pdf.
2. Likelihood of yielding important and publishable research products, based on the proposed work, the previous research history and productivity of the PI(s), and (if applicable) the qualifications of the student.
3. Enhancing the NWT and LTER research community, based on the past and likely future contributions of the PI(s) and (if applicable) the student to the NWT Program (e.g., attending NWT meetings, fulfilling data management and outreach requirements, participating in outreach efforts) and broader LTER network activities. This year, we ask applicants to select 2-3 areas from a list of activities (see (C) below) that will support the shared goals of the NWT community.
A. Adherence to NWTs data policy. Any datasets acquired for projects supported by NWT LTER should be archived with appropriate metadata according to NWT guidelines in consultation with NWT information manager Sarah Elmendorf. For modeling and/or analysis work, we request the code be added to the niwotridge github repo so we can continue to build on analyses that result from this funding. If the PI or the student have outstanding datasets from previous years support that have not been submitted, it will be important to submit prior to any more funding released.
B. Involvement with NWT’s science communication and outreach efforts. Graduate students who have received funding as GRAs are asked to participate in a Science Communication Seminar (1 credit, taught by Alex Rose, offered in each Fall) or develop a comparable independent effort with Alex. If funding has been received in previous years, please report on the impacts of outreach efforts that have taken place as a result of that funding.
C. Contributions to the larger NWT Project. Summer GRAs will be expected to devote the equivalent of one day a week (8 hours/wk) during the duration of their GRA (mid-May to mid-August) (~80 hours) to general NWT LTER research and data collection needs. We particularly encourage applicants to identify activities that relate to the student’s research and capitalizes on their expertise. Applicants will be asked to identify 2-3 of the following activities in the cover sheet of the Google Form that is included as part of the application process; however, alternative ideas can also be described in the main text:
a. Modeling: Data synthesis activities that could involve ancillary datasets (e.g. NEON), streamlining the NWT data workflow, or preliminary analyses of CLM simulations (contact: Will Wieder, Jason Neff)
b. Sensors/Climate: Weekly assistance in field with summer sensor maintenance in sensor network, TVan, Black Sand experiment sensors (contact: Jen Morse)
c. Snow: Assisting with weekly snowpits in early summer (May- June), and snow survey (May) (contact: Noah Molotch, Jen Morse)
d. Biogeochemistry: Soil sampling of saddle catchment plots to develop a long-term soil monitoring protocol, this could include biweekly inorganic N and Electrical conductivity measures, and one-time soil C:N and soil organic matter measures. (contact: Eve Hinkley, Jane Smith)
e. Lakes: Help with initial and final lakes sampling days in GLV (8 field days); Collect grab samples and probe measurements from Sandy Corner megacosms, post sample processing (filtering) (contact: Piet Johnson, Kelly Loria)
f. Black Sand Experiment: Help with plant species composition & productivity clip harvests in veg plots for black sand experiment (contact: Jane Smith)
g. Black Sand Experiment: Measure plant functional trait in experimental plots to add to the Niwot Trait database (contact: Marko Spasojevic, Jane Smith)
h. Outreach: Help organize the weekly Wild Bear Alpine Science Camp for middle school aged students. Create useable activity plans based for other LTER outreach programs or future volunteers (contact: Alex Rose, Jen Morse)
i. Pika Survey: Assist full time for 2nd two weeks in August with annual pika survey (contact: Jen Morse, Chris Ray)
j. GLV sampling: Weekly Thursday availability to collect surface water samples, take stage measurements and observations at stream gages, assist w/ stream gage maintenance and sensor calibration or downloads as needed in GLV (contact: Jen Morse)
REPORTING REQUIREMENTS. The awardee is expected to submit a report summarizing how the funds were used and the benefits gained from the activities at the end of the funding period (Spring 2021). Outreach activities (e.g., those associated with GRA support) should also be descirbed in the report. Awardees will be expected to present their work at one of the NWT monthly meetings.
All resulting publications must acknowledge the NWT LTER program using the NSF LTER Grant number. Please notify the NWT information manager of publications.
CONTACTS. Please contact the NWT LTER lead-PI Katharine Suding (suding@colorado.edu) or other members of the NWT executive committee to discuss ideas or request clarification. Application materials should be uploaded through the google sheet. Please contact the program coordinator (niwotridgelter@gmail.com) with any questions.