Graduate Fellows | University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability

Graduate Student Opportunities

Institute for Global Change Biology Graduate Fellow Program

The mission of the IGCB is to facilitate outstanding, interdisciplinary research by faculty, postdocs, and graduate students in Global Change Biology and in so-doing build a community with shared interests in that topic. Towards that goal, we are announcing support for graduate students working in diverse aspects of global change biology.

Funding Opportunities

* Application deadline is 15 March 2024 *

The 2024 IGCB Graduate Student Applications are now OPEN. See the information below for application details.

Each PhD student can request up to $7,500 in each funding cycle from the IGCB. These funds can be used for research, travel, or summer research fellowships. Applicants can apply for one or more of these funding types. Proposals should be relevant to the mission of the IGCB and fit into (or add to) the IGCB’s six research themes.

Small Research Grants

PhD students can apply for funds associated with their research. Examples of allowable costs include fieldwork expenses (travel, per diem, lodging), or analytical costs (e.g., UM sequencing core, (bio)geochemical analyses, etc.). Upon completion of the project, students will submit a short report (2 pages) and present their results during a brown bag IGCB seminar.

Travel Grants

Funds can be spent for a research visit to a collaborator’s lab, or to a professional development opportunity; or in rare cases to to attend a scientific conference if the student is presenting their research.

Summer Research Fellowships

PhD students can apply for a summer fellowship to support their research equivalent of up to $7,500.

Application Process

Proposals should be submitted via this form. Each proposal should include a <500 word summary of the proposed activities, and a budget (which does not count toward the word limit) that includes the total amount requested from the IGCB and explains (using a coarse breakdown) how IGCB funds will be used and includes any co-funding available. We also request a short recommendation from the primary UM faculty advisor (<150 words).

Deadline

The deadline for applications is March 15, 2024. Proposals will be considered from March 16, 2024 and will be assessed according to the (a) relevance to the mission of the IGCB, (b) scientific merit, (c) faculty support, and (d) timeline and budget suitability. Awardees will be named IGCB Graduate Fellows, listed as such on IGCB materials and website, and will be expected to use this co-affiliation on any products (e.g., lectures, reports, proposals, conference presentations, publications, and other activities) associated with their IGCB Fellowship experiences. Graduate Fellows will give a brown bag IGCB seminar where they discuss their project, its methods, goals and results (if any). Upon completion of the Fellowship, students will submit a short report (1-2 pages and with illustrations of some kind) that will be posted on the IGCB web site. Graduate students can also become IGCB Graduate Fellows through participating in other IGCB activities (such as training opportunities).

Contact Dr. Sarah Raubenheimer ([email protected]) with any questions.

Training Opportunities

These training opportunities are open to IGCB postdoc and graduate students, as well as other global change researchers who would like to make use of them. Email [email protected] to learn more about getting involved with these training opportunities.

Seminars, Brown Bag Talks, and Training Workshops

To provide opportunities for knowledge exchange and cohort building, there will be brown bag lunch seminars for graduate students and postdocs with informal research presentations as well as panel discussions (e.g., professional development or careers), as well as training workshops (e.g. such as on conducting interdisciplinary science, or on statistics, or other).

Departmental Seminars

Departmental seminars with an IGCB focus will be posted to the IGCB graduate student list-serve.

Core Seminar Courses

Graduate students are encouraged to participate in the existing Global Change Biology Seminar offered by EEB; additional 1 credit seminar courses in other units may be available in the future.