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McKinley Research Fund

The G. Murray McKinley Research Fund of the Pittsburgh Foundation provides grants for support of graduate and post doctoral research in ecology conducted at the Pymatuning Laboratory of Ecology (PLE). Several awards, generally not exceeding $3500, are awarded each summer.

Leasure K. Darbaker Prize in Botany

An annual award, not exceeding $1500, is available for support of botany-related studies conducted at PLE at the graduate or post doctoral levels.

All proposals must use the following format:

1. Cover page, containing project title and researcher contact information
2. Project summary, page containing a project summary of not more than 100 words
3. Project description, not exceeding 4, single-spaced pages (including all figures and tables)
4. Literature Cited
5. Budget
6. Applicant’s resume or CV
7. For non-University of Pittsburgh graduate student applicants, a letter of recommendation from the major advisor should be sent under separate cover

All margins should be set at 1 inch; all text should use 12-point font. All figures, figure captions, and tables should use 10-point font. Proposals that do not meet these formatting requirements will be returned without review.

The cost of housing, bench fees, meals, phone, copying and postage during the researcher’s stay at Pymatuning Laboratory should be included in the budget. Research equipment, supplies, transportation to and from field sites and undergraduate assistants are allowable expenses. All awards will be for work at the Pymatuning Laboratory.

Applications should be submitted as an attachment to pymlab@pitt.edu in MAC/PC/WORD/WP (no PDF files) format by February 7. If there is a problem in the application process please contact the PLE office in advance. Awards will be announced in mid-March.

The PLE Office should be contacted early about the availability and costs of laboratory and housing space.

McKinley Research Fund and Darbaker Prize Guidelines

Eligible applicants:

• Graduate students in good standing, verified with a letter of support from the graduate student's advisor if the student is not in the University of Pittsburgh's Biological Science Department.
• Recent Ph.D.’s initiating new research at Pymatuning Laboratory of Ecology (PLE)
• More senior researchers initiating new research at PLE. In this last category, funds are limited to a single project each year, and the funding allocated cannot exceed 20% of the available funds for that year.

The proposals received by the deadline will be evaluated by a panel of reviewers from a variety of institutions, with the intent of funding those proposals most likely to produce significant results and lead to a longer-term extramurally funded program of research at PLE. McKinley and Darbaker awards should not therefore be seen as a way of funding a multi-year project.

The funds awarded are to be spent according to the guidelines given below and must be spent by October 31 of the year in which they are awarded. Any funds unspent on October 31 will revert to the general pool of McKinley funds.

A post-doctoral researcher will not ordinarily be considered for funding for more than one year, two years under extenuating circumstances. When funding is requested in a second year, evidence should be provided showing that the researcher has actively sought extramural funding, or explaining why that was not done.

A graduate student researcher will not ordinarily be considered for more than two years of funding. When funding is requested for a third year, evidence should be provided showing that the researcher has actively sought extramural funding, or explaining why that was not done.

Under no circumstances will a senior researcher be considered for more than a single year's funding.

Allowable Expenses

1. Materials and supplies necessary to conduct research, travel between PLE and local field sites, food and housing costs, PLE bench fees, equipment necessary to conduct the research, field and laboratory assistance, and the cost of feeding and housing assistant(s).
2. The research must be conducted while in residence at PLE. This means that travel between PLE and the researcher's academic-year home is not an allowable expense. Preparatory work done at location other than PLE is not an allowable expense. Analysis and processing done at other institutions are not allowable expenses.
3. All materials, supplies and equipment purchased with McKinley or Darbaker funds are the property of PLE. All equipment and any remaining materials and supplies at the end of the season must be turned over to the Director of PLE.
4. The McKinley and Darbaker awards do not pay stipends or hourly wages for graduate students. Do not include them in the budget.
5. These awards do not pay page charges for publications. Do not include them in the budget.

Procedures for Spending Funds

1. All expenditures must be in accord with the approved budget. In the event that the award is less than the requested budget, or certain items listed in the requested budget have been disallowed in the award letter, the budget must be resubmitted before funds can be spent. The resubmitted budget must: 1) equal the amount of the researcher's award as indicated in the award letter, and 2) include only those items deemed allowable in the award. Any uncertainty should be resolved by contacting the Director of PLE prior to resubmitting the budget request.
2. All expenditures must be made through either the Administrative Secretary at PLE or Pat Dean in the Biological Sciences fiscal office. It is otherwise impossible to adequately track expenditures. Expenditures made through any other office of the University will not be honored. Cash expenditures, within the allowable limits set by the University's purchasing policies, are allowable and necessary from time-to-time. The PLE Administrative Secretary must be notified of all cash expenditures in advance of the purchase. The Administrative Secretary should be informed of the approximate amount to be spent, the intended vendor and the budget category into which the expenditure falls. Unless this procedure is followed, reimbursement may not be possible.
3. All shipped materials and supplies must arrive at PLE's administrative office. They must be received by the Administrative Secretary of PLE and processed before researchers can access them. Equipment will be recorded as in the possession of the appropriate researcher, and is to be returned at the end of the researcher's residence at PLE. Any unreasonable damage to equipment or missing equipment at the time of departure will be charged to the researcher.
4. Recipients of McKinley and Darbaker Awards are responsible for keeping track of their expenditures and account balance to ensure that funds are available to cover housing and bench fees at the end of their residence at PLE.

Responsibility for Research Sites

Like any kind of land use, research can have both positive and negative impacts on biodiversity and the dynamics of ecological communities and species populations. On PLE and Commonwealth lands in the PLE vicinity, repeated use by researchers and the resulting cumulative effects are of special concern. Even if the research has had no visible effects on the area, it may compromise the area for certain kinds of future research. It is the researcher's responsibility to minimize those effects. The following conditions apply to all McKinley and Darbaker funded projects.

1. All introductions of species or individuals alien to the site of the research must be approved by the Director of PLE in advance. Failure to do so can result in termination of the project.
2. The location of all research sites should be recorded as accurately as possible. At a minimum, this means using the PLE Global Positioning Unit (GPS) to mark the corners of all research plots/sites. The GPS is available free of charge, and training in its use is available as well.
3. All tags, markers, flags and other hardware must be removed from the site at the end of the research season unless their continued presence across seasons has been approved by the Director in advance of the end of the research season for that project.
4. Researchers are requested to provide any species lists to the Director for inclusion in the PLE Biodiversity Data Base. Partial lists and lists including both common and scientific names are requested. Any information is helpful.

Reporting

1. All researchers must present their work to the PLE community during the summer of residence. This can be done in the evening seminar series or in the less formal brown bag lunch series. Scheduling is done through the Administrative Secretary at PLE. You must schedule this seminar before funds will become available for expenditure.
2. All McKinley and Darbaker researchers must submit a project report by February 1 of the year following the award. Reports should be no more than three pages, exclusive of figures and citations. Any publications, seminars, talks at meetings, posters or submitted manuscripts should be noted.
3. All publications must acknowledge support of the McKinley Fund or Darbaker Prize and have a PLE publication number, obtainable from the Administrative Secretary at the time of acceptance for publication.

 
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