There are just over two weeks remaining to the deadline for applications for the 2017 SCAR Fellowship Scheme. The deadline for applications is 1 July 2017.
Fellowships enable early-career researchers to join a project team from another country, opening up new opportunities and often creating partnerships that last for many years and over many Antarctic field seasons. Fellows may be awarded up to US$15,000 each and, this year, up to five are being offered by SCAR. Normally we award 4 a year, but thanks to the generous contribution from India, we can offer 5 this year.
Preparing a successful fellowship application is a skill. Often, lack of success with applications is not due to a poor research idea but can come down to the inability to express ideas clearly and confidently, in writing. To help applicants develop their fellowship proposal writing skills, two mentoring webinars were held jointly by SCAR, the Council of Managers of National Antarctic Programs (COMNAP) and the Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS), one in English in 2016 and a second in Spanish in 2017. These are particularly meant for young researchers in countries with a small or just developing Antarctic research community that may not have adequate mentoring in their home institutions. The webinars can be accessed on the SCAR Fellowships Mentoring page (http://www.scar.org/fellowship/mentoring).