The Antarctic Wildlife Research Fund (AWR) announced its second call for proposals which will allocate up to a total sum of USD $200,000 to fund Antarctic ecosystem research.
“I am very pleased and excited to see bold new partnerships such as AWR, where scientists, the private sector and nongovernmental organizations are stepping into the void of much needed new research and monitoring in the Southern Ocean. AWR reflects the very best of CCAMLR’s original conservation intent – putting money into understanding what is needed to ensure that human activity is in harmony with the wildlife throughout the Southern Ocean ecosystem” said Mark Epstein, Chair of the AWR board and Executive Director of ASOC (The Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition).
Epstein announced that the second round of funding during an AWR hosted lunch seminar at CCAMLR-XXXIV in Hobart Wednesday 28 October. The call for proposals will be issued in mid-March of 2016 and all proposals must be received by mid-June of 2016. Also at the seminar, the winning grant recipients of the first round of funding introduced their scientific research projects:
- Dr. Christian Reiss on the development of a new direct ageing methodology for Antarctic krill.
- Dr. Andrew Lowther on how brush tail penguins (Adelie, chinstrap and gentoo), key consumers of krill, rely on predictable aggregations of the small crustacean in order to successfully raise and fledge chicks during their austral-summer breeding seasons.
- Dr. Ari Friedlander on the long-term ecological study on the foraging behavior of humpback whales around the Antarctic Peninsula, focusing on how critical foraging areas relate to historic catches of krill in the region.
The Science Advisory Group (SAG) of the AWR, will evaluate and prioritize scientific research proposals received by the fund to ensure they are in line with the scientific research plan, established by the SAG and that they fulfill the goal of AWR.
The AWR call for proposals opens in March and closes in June 2016.
The call is made for projects in the order of USD $25,000 to USD $100,000.
AWR’s second Call for proposals will allocate up to a total sum of USD $200,000.
Launched in February 2015, AWR is a first-of-its-kind partnership between industry, academia and non-government organizations (NGOs), to facilitate and promote research on the Antarctic ecosystem.
AWR believes that only through better understanding of the role of Antarctic krill in the Southern Ocean will it be possible to comprehensively protect the animals that depend on it for survival and ensure precautionary management of the fishery.
AWR’s founding partners include representatives of the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition (ASOC), WWF-Norway and Aker BioMarine.For more information, including application forms, date and criteria for AWR's next call for proposals, please see http://www.antarcticfund.org/
For more information:
Sustainability Director at Aker BioMarine, Marte Haabeth Grindaker serves as Secretary and press contact to the Antarctic Wildlife Research Fund. She can be reached at info@antarcticfund.org +47 92 02 07 52
Rodolfo Werner: Scientific Advisor to AWR: science@antarcticfund.org +54 294 4441 277
Mark Epstein, Chair of the AWR board and Executive Director of Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition: mark.epstein@asoc.org +1 202 550 4258