THE GLOBAL REGISTER OF MIGRATORY SPECIES - www.groms.de

The UNEP/CMS Thesis Award on Migratory Species Conservation, sponsored by Deutsche Lufthansa, is now open for applications until 15th April 2011. Application forms will be available from 15th July 2010 onwards. he award of €10,000 (c. US$ 14,650) will be made at the 10th Meeting of the Conference of Parties to CMS (COP10) in Norway in November 2011, in affiliation with the Zoologisches Forschungsmuseum Alexander Koenig (ZFMK) in Bonn. The Secretariat of the Bonn Convention on Migratory Species advertises this award to promote scientific research and conservation of migratory species, as defined by the Convention. The thesis should provide new data and insights into the biology and ecology of migratory species or external factors disrupting their migration patterns. Research results must be applicable to conservation measures to the benefit of migratory species. Entries for the COP 10 Awards are now invited with a closing date of 15 April 2011. A licensed educational institution must have accepted the study as a Ph.D. or doctoral thesis. All theses accepted during the period May 2008 - April 2011 may be submitted. From all applications, eight theses will be short-listed by an advisory board of twenty international experts, covering different regions and animal groups. Referees will not see any personal data, such as the candidates’ address, email, home institutions or names of supervisors. Pre-selection is based only on abstracts and publications (if available). In addition, candidates should outline the relevance of their work for migratory species conservation in a short statement (max. 300 words). Short-listed candidates have to submit three hardcopies for detailed review by two experts. A final Jury, consisting of eight scientists and conservationists will meet in Bonn, in August 2011, to nominate the winner. Their decision is based on the expert reviews, the candidates’ statements, and the Jury’s assessment of the potential for migratory species conservation. The Jury’s decision is final. Submitted hardcopies are not returned, but will remain in the libraries of the CMS Secretariat and the ZFMK. Bibliographic data and English abstracts of all theses will be transferred and permanently stored within the Global Register of Migratory Species (GROMS) bibliographic database. The winner should be willing to make his/her original data widely accessible through the CMS Information System and the GROMS database (except sensitive data). The Secretariat and the ZFMK will possibly provide support to generate appropriate data repositories and related metadata, as well as online and/or hardcopy publication of the winner’s thesis.

Please submit your application by downloading and filling out the Excel spreadsheet with self-explanatory field names. Save your filled-out spreadsheet in Excel2000 or lower format, add your name into the filename, eventually zip it and send it per email to Klaus Riede (k.riede.zfmk[at]uni-bonn.de. In your email, please enclose the summary of your dissertation and your short statement concerning relevance of your work for CMS and conservatioon as plain text, this will be double-checked against your submitted excel spreadsheet. If you do not get a confirmation within 5 days, please do not hesitate to send us a reminder. Likewise, feel free to consult us for any questions.

 by Klaus Riede

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