U.S. Carbon Program Leadership Award 

for North American Carbon Science Community Engagement, Communication and Collaborations

The U.S. Carbon Cycle Science Program, in collaboration with the North American Carbon Program (NACP), is pleased to announce the first U.S. Carbon Program Leadership Award in support of the North American carbon cycle community’s engagement, communication and collaboration opportunities. This award activity is aimed at advancing our broader diversity, equity, inclusivity, accessibility and justice goals which are essential for fulfilling our national and global science priorities and mandates in support of the 1990 Global Change Research Act to understand, assess, predict, and respond to human-induced and natural processes of global change. This activity also aims to support our mission to coordinate and facilitate federally funded carbon cycle research, and provide leadership to the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) on carbon cycle science priorities. 

This award will support the meeting or workshop travel costs (accommodations, transportation and per diem for in-person meeting; registration costs for virtual or in-person meeting) of early career and/or under-represented students, scientists and practitioners primarily from North America (U.S., Canada and Mexico). Examples of 2021 and 2022 pertinent meetings/conferences for which this award could be used by the awardees include the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Annual Fall Meeting, the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences Annual Meeting (AAAS)* and thematic workshops or work group meetings related to, approved by, and/or supporting the mission and interests of the U.S. Carbon Cycle Science Program and North American Carbon Program. Travel support expenses for meetings of ad-hoc work groups supporting the current and planned activities and priorities of the U.S. Carbon Cycle Science Program and North American Carbon Program will also be considered. 

• Application Deadline: Rolling submissions will be accepted from the date of the release of this announcement through April 2022 or until funds are depleted, whichever comes first.

• Application link: Submit your application via this form. Please read this entire announcement first.

• Goals: 

(i) To support the scientific engagement, communication, collaboration and coordination efforts of early career and/or under-represented students, scientists and practitioners;

(ii) To facilitate the scientific training, career development and community service efforts of the award recipients;

(iii) To promote the inclusivity, accessibility, belonging, visibility, leadership opportunities and active participation of individuals and identities who are under-represented in carbon cycle science community and interagency activities and/or demonstrate leadership and initiative to advance these goals. 

• Award Criteria: 

• This is a primarily need-based award with the intent to support the meeting/workshop registration and travel costs of up to or approximately 50 qualified/eligible early career and/or under-represented students, scientists and practitioners in the carbon cycle science and climate change science sectors in the 2021-2022 time period. 

• If you are unemployed (e.g. full-time parent, in-between jobs, just graduated, job-seeker) but active in your field, you are still eligible for this award, as long as you are able to demonstrate clearly why you need it and how you will use this opportunity to advance the above goals. 

• All applicants must demonstrate higher education and/or professional or volunteer experiences in any carbon cycle related fields of physical, natural or social sciences, including science policy areas. Academic or professional disciplines can span terrestrial, atmospheric, oceanic or societal topics or any combination of interdisciplinary topics covering the impacts of/to the carbon cycle and climate change.

• Leadership, plans and/or initiative in communication, collaboration and/or coordination efforts (e.g. publications, community outreach, websites/digital platforms etc.) related to or with carbon cycle science and/or practitioner communities must be articulated in the application/CV. 

• A very short resume or CV (less than 4 pages) and application (follow this application link) must be submitted for consideration, at least 20 days before the start of the meeting, workshop or associated travel. Please do not reach out to us by email. Only applications submitted via the application form will be considered.

• Maximum Award per person: Awards will cover expenses up to $1000 per person per activity. If higher expenses are anticipated due to higher registration costs or other reasons, please describe the reasons in your application, with clear and trackable cost breakdowns (e.g. meeting website urls showing registration costs) and rationale. 

• Restrictions: 

• U.S. Government employees are not eligible for this award.**

• Due to award restrictions, only reimbursable meeting or workshop registration costs and/or travel and hotel expenses with valid submitted receipts are eligible to be considered for this award. 

• Inclusivity: The events, including work group meeting participation for which this award is provided, must be advertised publicly via https://carboncyclescience.us , https://nacarbon.org and/or platforms associated with the event hosting entity, and must be open, inclusive and welcoming of all interested and pertinent participants. 

• Expected deliverable(s): 

• Within four weeks following the completion of their participation or travel, each award recipient must provide a very short summary or blurb about what they learned from or contributed to the meeting/workshop for which they received the award, including any take-away points and/or actions and relevance to the U.S. Carbon Program and North American Carbon Program’s current and future activities and opportunities. 

• If deemed appropriate, the blurbs will be published in the Carbon Digest, the U.S. Carbon Cycle Science Program’s periodic newsletter, in order to promote the awardees’ visibility, work and achievements in the science community. 

• Other deliverables such as journal publications, graphical representations, and blog posts in popular outlets or scientific platforms will also be considered but this award will not cover those costs. 

• If the award is granted for a work group activity, the work group can develop a group blurb, publication or deliverable in an inclusive and open format that can be used and shared by the US Carbon Cycle Science Program and North American Carbon Program.

• Diversity, Equity, Inclusivity, Accessibility, Justice: All awardees must adhere to embracing and advancing diversity, equity, inclusivity, accessibility and justice in the carbon cycle science and climate change community including the communities and individuals with whom we conduct our research and employment activities.

• Selection: The selections of awardees will be conducted by a special joint committee of the U.S. Carbon Cycle Science Program Office and the North American Program. 

• Timeline/Deadline: The last acceptable activities that this award can support will need to be completed and processed by May 2022. 

  
  

Acknowledgment: This award is made possible through the support of USDA NIFA (Award # 20206701931396) and the Carbon Cycle Interagency Working Group (CCIWG) through NOAA's Climate Adaptation and Mitigation Program administered by UCAR's Cooperative Programs for the Advancement of Earth System Science (CPAESS) under awards #R4310253 and 4310253B.

Amendments:
 *Nov 30, 2021 update: This announcement was updated to only include meetings that will be concluded by May 2022.

**The restriction applies to federal employees of the U.S. Government.