Types of Proposals
Catalysis Meetings
CATALYSIS MEETINGS
These one-time meetings bring together ~30 scientists from diverse disciplines to focus on a major question or research area in evolutionary biology. These meetings are intended to identify avenues for scientific synthesis, and classes of primary data that must be collected before grand-scale synthesis is possible. These meetings are intended to increase the scale and ambition of our scientific vision. By allowing interaction beyond the "usual suspects," these meetings will facilitate the assembly of networks to collect the primary data needed for synthesis, and networks that will apply for funding such as NSF Research Coordination Networks or NESCent's "working groups."
Meetings should focus on synthetic scientific or educational research in evolutionary biology. For more information about educational programs at NESCent, please contact Brian Wiegmann, Associate Director for Education and Outreach.
Meetings will be held at NESCent facilities in Durham, NC. Support includes travel, lodging and per diem. No salary support is provided, and no overhead is allowed. Awardees do not receive an actual budget. NESCent will handle the budgetary needs for all meeting expenses (hotel, airfare, meals, break food, shuttles, taxis, parking, etc.). Specific guidelines will be provided with award information.
Although the format of the meeting is flexible, we suggest 10-minute presentations (followed by 10-minute discussion) involving flip-charts to encourage spontaneity.
The Importance of the Central Theme
Conversations between disciplines begin when all participants are vitally interested in the central issue. If individuals from two fields are "talking past each other," they are more likely to figure out where they aren't communicating if they share a deep interest in a common subject. Finally, the theme should be grand enough to excite and inspire.
Examples of recently supported catalysis meetings include such topics as:
- Biological diversification on the West Indian Archipelago
- Integrated studies of genetic networks
- Primate fossil analysis
- Evolution in contemporary human populations
- Genomic approaches to the study of adaptive radiation
- Patterns of biodiversity in Madagascar
Starting a Conversation Between Disciplines:
New audiences for new papers, influencing the research programs of potential collaborators
Presentations at catalysis meetings can focus on areas of their fields that they believe are most likely to convince participants that they will benefit from collaboration with the likes of you! For example, a phylogeographer might emphasize the classes of information they can provide that will be of interest to the paleontologists in the audience. Or a paleontologist might have a specific kind of collaboration in mind with the oceanographers present.
Presenters might also focus on information they need from other fields, but find difficult to obtain from the literature. All scientists write papers that are of interest to particular audiences, usually within their own fields. Presenters can attempt to persuade individuals in specific that there are audiences for papers that they may not currently be writing.
In other cases, presenters might suggest how somebody from another field might modify their research program (often only slightly) in such a way that their work becomes much more useful for collaboration and synthesis.
Before You Apply
Applicants may contact Allen Rodrigo, Director of NESCent or Susan Alberts, Associate Director of Science and Synthesis, for feedback on project ideas. Please review our Conflict of Interest and Data And Software policies before applying. For technical support, write to help@nescent.org.
