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The Paddy Pallin Foundation, together with the Royal Zoological Society of NSW offers annual Science Grants of up to $10,000 each, to support field-based, high-quality ecological research. The objective of the grants is to provide financial support for conservation-based research of Australian ecosystems that will ultimately lead to tangible outcomes for management. The scope of the research is open to terrestrial, marine, and freshwater research on animals and/or plants.

The grants are open to postgraduate students and Early Career Researchers (with less than 3 years of research-related experience since conferral of PhD, excluding research career interruptions). Funding commences in October and the grant will be administered through the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales.

For queries about eligibility please contact [email protected]

Details of grant conditions and the application process are presented below. Application forms are available from the Royal Zoological Society of NSW website

See previous winners

• Applicants must be either enrolled or have an academic position (including adjunct/visiting positions) at an Australian University or research position at a relevant institution eg CSIRO or a museum

• Applicants should be financial members of the RZS NSW

• The research must address conservation problems in Australian systems and have clearly defined management implications. Preference will be given to research that deals with ecological community processes.

• The work should lead to publication in high-quality ecological or conservation journals

• The successful grant winner will be expected to present the outcomes of their research at a public lecture within 18-24 months of the award date. A video summary of the project would be appreciated in order to update funders on the outcome of the funding: this may be posted on the Foundations’ and partners’ websites.

• Details of the successful projects each year will be summarised on the RZS NSW and Paddy Pallin Foundation websites

• Conference travel is not supported

• University or research institutional on-costs are not supported

• A short report of the project (up to two pages) is required at the end of each year 1 and a final report after 18-24 months is suitable for posting on the above websites.

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Applications must be emailed in PDF format to [email protected] and received by the Executive Officer of the Royal Zoological Society of NSW by midnight on the 31st August. Late applications will not be considered.

A subcommittee comprising members of the council of the Royal Zoological Society of NSW and representatives of the Paddy Pallin Science Grants funders will assess applications and the decision of the subcommittee is final. Applicants will be notified by email of the outcomes of the grant by mid-October. Funding will then be provided on a staged basis; $7000 upon acceptance and provision of photos and a media-friendly summary, a further $2000 after completion of the progress report after 12 months, and the final $1000 after submission of a final report (at 18-­24 months depending on the project).

Photo credit: Lachlan Gardiner