The main purpose of the SSC Internship Grant is to support future early career conservationists around the world to provide input in the areas of research, assessment, planning, conservation actions and communications that will allow them to gain experience working closely with the different SSC Groups to conserve globally threatened species.
The SSC Internship Grant will open one round per year to allocate small grants of USD 3,600.00 to each project to support young professionals by providing them with opportunities to work on a specific species-related project within the SSC Network. This grant will also help all groups achieve their goals and contribute to the Species Conservation Cycle ratified as SSC's framework in our Species Strategic Plan 2021-2025.
These funds are available thanks to the partnership with the North America Regional Office, through the IUCN George Rabb SSC Fund. With this new grant program, the SSC Chair’s Office meets a need identified in the SSC DATA Information System through information reported by the SSC Groups. This grant also helps to facilitate the incorporation of new and young members to the groups, while supporting the implementation and achievement of the groups' targets, as one of SSC's priorities for 2023-2025.
Location: Worldwide
Timeline: The call for applications will open each year between June-July for projects to start in September-October. Applicants will have one month to submit their proposals.
Priorities: This round will be open to all projects focused on all components of our Species Conservation Cycle.
- Assess: Understand and inform the world about the status and trends of biodiversity.
- Plan: Develop collaborative, inclusive, science-based conservation strategies, plans, and policies.
- Act: Convene and mobilise conservation actions to improve the status of biodiversity.
- Network: Enhance and support our immediate network and alliances to achieve our biodiversity targets.
- Communicate: Drive strategic and targeted communications to enhance our conservation impact.
The Internship Grant aims to fund projects related to research activities, fieldwork and data analysis, data collection and management, document and guidelines development, coordination, editing and design of publications, translation activities, as well as creation and management of communication channels, among other areas of work.
Who can apply
This funding opportunity will be open to the entire SSC Network: Specialist Groups, Stand-alone Red List Authorities, Task Forces, Conservation Committees and National Species Specialist Groups. Any SSC group interested in submitting an application should contemplate the following:
- The proposal must be submitted by the chair or a member of the group properly registered in the IUCN Union Portal.
- The intern's supervisor may be the group chair or any other member of the group.
- Intern must be under the age of 35 and provide proof of this within the proposal.
- Intern must be a student (undergraduate or graduate) or have graduated within the last three years. Must be pursuing or have completed a bachelor's or master's degree in areas such as biology, environmental sciences, sustainable development, natural sciences, and/or careers related to communications.
- The intern should have an affinity with the vision and mission of the IUCN SSC group applying and a strong interest in the IUCN network.
- Good chance that the intern will become a member of the group and be highly motivated to learn and develop new skills.
Requirements
- The proposal must be approved by the SSC Group leaders. Please include the chair’s endorsement within the Application form. You can find an example here: Letter of Endorsement
- Must include the intern's CV in the Application form.
- The project will focus on species or small groups of species, it can be any taxon or region.
- The proposal must present a detailed description of the internship project, location, expected dates, expected learning and tangible project outcomes and outputs.
- The budget must clearly show how the funds will be used to cover all of the activities performed by the intern indicated in the proposal, which will be carried out in 2023 -2024 and which contributes to a target set for the SSC Group for the current quadrennium (2021-2025). Priority will be given to targets set for implementation during 2023-2024.
- The budget may only be used to cover the monthly compensation of the intern, any other expenses associated with work in the field will be considered. In the event that the project receives other funds, it is important that the budget table indicates the additional funds already secured to enable project implementation.
- Allocated budget per project is US$ 3,600.
- The execution of the timeline of the intern’s activities can be less than 6 months up to a maximum of 12 months. Any extension of the project date must be notified in advance to Mayerlin Ramos via email (mayerlin.ramos@ssc.iucn.org) informing the reasons for the extension request.
- The work must be carried out within the SSC Group and may or may not involve partner organizations, universities or a research group.
SSC DATA Information System: requirement
- The SSC group must be properly registered in the SSC DATA Information System.
- The project’s targets must MATCH those registered in SSC DATA Information System for the current five-year period (2021-2025).
- SSC Group results for 2021 and 2022 must be uploaded into SSC DATA Information System (SSC Group Chair, click on this link SSC DATA IS Resources for further instructions on how to upload information into the system). In case you need support contact Levi Mendoza (Levi.Mendoza@ssc.iucn.org).
