Administration of the 2011 George Melendez Wright Climate Change Fellowship Program
Project ID: J8W07110001
Federal Agency: National Park Service
Partner Institution: University of Washington
Fiscal Year: 2011
Initial Funding: $56,305
Total Funding: $294,906
Project Type: Technical Assistance
Project Disciplines: Interdisciplinary
National Park: National Projects
Principal Investigator: Graumlich, Lisa
Agreement Technical Representative: Norby, Lisa
Abstract: The National Park Service (NPS), the Department of Interior, and the President of the United States have sought to increase science-based resource management in NPS units to improve the understanding of park resources and incorporation of such information by park managers in making decisions, to improve the quality of information given to the public, and to increase the number of partners that assist NPS with using sound science in its decision-making. The George Melendez Wright Climate Change Fellowship Program (CCFP) addresses climate change related research needs identified by upper level undergraduate and graduate students and their university advisors. This is a collaborative project between NPS and the University of Washington (UW) to administer the 2011 George Melendez Wright Climate Change Fellowship Program. The project will be conducted in two phases. The following activities will occur in Phase I: a call for proposals will be distributed; criteria will be developed for use in evaluating and ranking proposals; an internet-based system will be set up to facilitate proposal review and ranking; a coordinated review of approximately 150 research proposals will be conducted by review panels consisting of academic and NPS experts; the results of the evaluations will be compiled and fellowship recipients will be selected; and a summary of the process and the selected research projects will be produced. In Phase II, the selected research projects will be conducted throughout the country by the student fellows with each project involving NPS participation through field and safety training and other project support, data collection and analysis (where appropriate), and through developing and reviewing the fellowship reports. There are many public benefits to this project, including involving more than 100 college and university students throughout the country in writing research proposals on the contemporary issue of climate change, conducting the selected research projects and producing new knowledge to enable better management of public lands in the face of climate change, and publicly providing their research findings through at least 2 websites (NPS Climate Change Response Program, and a UW site).
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