SLMP Student Project Grants

Program Details

Mission Statement

The mission of the Grant Committee of SLMP is to:

Advance science that improves aquatic systems through advancements in water quality, vegetation management, watershed conservation, and fisheries.

 

How we plan to accomplish this:

1. Work alongside private landowners to increase understanding of their aquatic systems through application of scientific processes.
2. Engage students and offer opportunities to participate in practical science projects designed to innovate and advance best management practices.
3. Encourage private lake management companies to participate in scientific research projects designed to create, refine, and share cutting edge technologies and techniques.
4. Collaborate with other organizations to promote practical, management-based research projects that produce real world, immediate impacts.

 

General Approach Overview

Private lakes and ponds are important components of the American landscape.  There are an estimated 4.5 million ponds and small lakes (≤40 ha) in the continental United States, and the vast majority are privately owned (Willis and Neal 2012).  Effective management of lentic systems is an essential component of conserving the nation’s aquatic resources and their habitats (Miranda 2017).  Many species of fish and wildlife benefit from the habitat that these small impoundments collectively provide.  Unlike many larger public impoundments, ecological integrity and management of private waters is largely under the control of a small number of landowners.  This offers managers opportunities to address watershed-level issues more easily and with greater effect than those working on large, multiuse systems (Miranda 1996).  This makes small private waters ideal places to conduct research that can inform management of these systems but can also be applied to larger systems and help the progression of science and understanding of fish ecology and fisheries management (Willis and Neal 2012).

Despite these advantages, research on private waters has lagged far behind that in public waters (Hill et al. 2021).  One of the main reasons is lack of funding sources to support this work.  As threats to worldwide biodiversity increase, often linked to burgeoning human populations and climate change, more funding continues to be allocated towards large-scale research projects that address community-level questions.  Also, one of the main sources of fisheries management funding comes through Federal Aid in Sportfish Restoration allocated through the states, but those monies are generally restricted to public waters.  Therefore, the Funding Committee of SLMP has the opportunity to meet this need and foster research that will directly benefit managers of small private waters and lead to more effective management practices.

This committee will assess and prioritize issues of greatest conservation need, and provide funds for research that addresses the science, technology, tools, best management practices, and monitoring protocols needed for successful fisheries management in small private impoundments.  It will share that knowledge with all SLMP members, landowners, and other entities with private waters interest and issues.  It will also facilitate training of future lake management professionals through participation in directed research on these systems and presentation of these results at professional meetings, including the SLMP Annual Summit.  The overall goal is to address a noticeable gap in aquatic research and foster a research component within SLMP that will enhance our annual meetings.

 

The Grant Process

Grants will be awarded to individuals, organizations, or educational institutions and must be used to support the mission of the Grant Committee and SLMP.  Funding announcements will be sent out shortly after the annual SLMP summit each yea using a typical Request for Proposal (RFP) format.  Proposals will be vetted and scored using the metrics described below by individual members of the Grant Committee.  Proposals with the highest mean score will be awarded the grant for that year.  If money remains in the budget after covering the awarded grant, then the second-highest ranking grant may also be awarded, at the committee’s discretion.  Upon acceptance of a proposal for funding, a member of the Grant Committee will be assigned as the lead person for administration of that that specific grant.  This person will be responsible for ensuring the money reaches the awardee(s), ensuring that progress is occurring on research funded by the grant, and will serve as the contact person for the awardee(s).

 

 

Research Focus Areas

Proposals are encouraged for one or more of the following focus areas

• Water quality management

• Vegetation and aquatic weed control
• Fisheries management and habitat health
• Conservation science
• Stormwater systems management

 

Scoring Metrics

Scoring metrics will be developed to allow proposals to be judged fairly in terms of how well they meet the objectives and mission of the SLMP Grant Committee.  These metrics will include the following areas:

• Overall fit with SLMP mission statement
• Landowner engagement
• Direct benefits to target species, including water quality improvement
• Proper justification for the need of this research and demonstrate that proposed research will meet this need
• Inclusion of measurable objectives and ability to report actual measurable outcomes.
• Leverage ratio, if applicant can demonstrate additional funding for the work from other sources, including student salary, project will score higher
• Engagement of multiple partners, either with funding as above or with in-kind matches of employee time and/or equipment
• Amount of youth engagement in the project (not counting the students supported by the grant)

 

Funding Sources

Primary funding for this program initially will be a mixture of SLMP (scholarship committee) and donations by vendors and/or landowners.  Potential additional funding sources include Future Farmers of America or other agricultural organizations, as much of the work funded by this program is likely to occur on land owned by farmers.  Finally, most research projects funded under this program will be conducted on target species such as Largemouth Bass and Bluegill, both of which are popular with anglers (Schramm and Willis 2012).  Given that, it may be possible to find support from corporate sponsors such as Berkley, Bass Pro Shops, or other fishing industries.  Further, grassroots funding directly from anglers (i.e., tax-free donations) has been successfully used by organizations such as Friends of Reservoirs to support habitat-related projects in public reservoirs (https://www.friendsofreservoirs.org/).  A similar program may be implemented to support research funded by the Grant Committee of SLMP.

 

Eligibility – high school and undergraduate students

Applicants to this request for proposals (RFP) must:

• involve student participation, even if the awardee is not in an educational institution. Students must be at the high school or undergraduate level and be in good academic standing
• If the applicant is a student, they must have a faculty mentor willing to ensure the project and required reporting will be completed.
• attend and present results at the annual summit of SLMP. Travel may be supported by the research grant or (if a student) with a scholarship from the SLMP Scholarship Committee.

Research must be conducted at privately-owned ponds or small impoundments.  If no field work is involved, then proposed research must be applicable to professionals working in private small impoundments.  Projects not eligible for funding under this call include: those focused on monitoring-only activities, human dimensions, and those not including measurable objectives.  Additionally, we cannot accept proposals currently under review through another competition.

 

Funding

• The total funding amount is up to $10,000. Multiple projects or none may be funded.
• Project performance period from 3/1/2026 through 3/31/2027 with the last month reserved for preparing the final report.
• Funding will be provided via stipend installments paid directly to the awardee. Stipends will be allocated during the performance period as project milestones are being met. Please engage with your Grant Committee lead to understand requirements.  Students should further engage with their faculty advisor for assistance in understanding how this stipend may mesh with other funding streams.

Two to four projects are expected to be funded out of this competition, subject to availability of funds and the quality of the applications received.  The SLMP Grant Committee is not obligated to fund any projects out of this competition if no suitable proposals are received.

 

Application 

Required Proposal Elements

Proposals that do not adhere to the following format requirements may be disqualified from the competition. Please pay careful attention to formatting and page limits.

Proposals must adhere to the following format:

• 1-inch margins all around
• Arial/Calibri or Times New Roman 12-point fonts

A complete application package includes items 1-6 as noted below. Items 1-5 must be combined into a single Adobe pdf and item six will be submitted separately through the portal:

1. Cover page
2. Project proposal
3. References cited
4. CV
5. Data Management Plan
6. Letter of support from faculty member

 

Cover Page (limited to 1 page)

1. Title of project
2. Applicant name and contact information including institution/organization; for students: academic institution, major, and faculty mentor contact information
3. One to five keywords for the proposed project

Project Proposal (limited to 4 pages, including any figures and tables)

1. Description of proposed research project: Describe your project and the focus area(s) it addresses. Include what you plan to accomplish in terms of a specific research question(s), goals, objectives, hypotheses to test, or needs to be met through communication and information transfer.

 

1. Methods and materials: Detailed enough to ensure reviewer confidence in the ability of the project to answer the stated research question(s). Be sure to include any planned statistical approaches.
2. Outreach and information transfer: Describe your communication plans and collaboration/outreach approaches and how you will disseminate the results of your project. Meaningful engagement with the public, resource managers, landowners, and/or state or local governments is strongly encouraged.
3. Timeline: provide a clear timeline of all project activities.
4. Significance to SLMP and funding programs:
5. Describe the importance of your project and why the work is needed and relevant to SLMP and the interests of lake managers
6. Include a brief explanation of any other support for this work that is already obtained and how requested funds will be used in support of the project.

References Cited (as needed, no page limit); use a standard bibliographic format.

Curricula Vitae limited to 2 pages; any standard  format.

Data Management Plan (limited to 2 pages)

1. Descriptions of the types of environmental data and information expected to be created over the course of the project.
2. Tentative date by which data will be shared.

iii. Standards to be used for data/metadata format and content.

1. Methods for providing data access.
2. Approximate total volume of data to be collected.

Letters of Support (no page limit) 

1. Students must include a letter of support from the applicant’s faculty advisor.
2. Additional letters, particularly those that speak to the applicability of the proposed project results or from partnering organizations, are optional but strongly encouraged.

Review Process 

A technical review panel will evaluate proposals. The panel will be made up of participating program staff and other experts as needed. Proposals will be evaluated on these criteria: relevance to SLMP and lake/pond management; quality of the proposed science; clearly stated research questions and/or objectives; appropriate timeline to complete the project in one year; quality of the letter/s of support; thoughtfulness of the information transfer strategies; and adherence to the instructions in this request for proposals.