Mini-ARTS Awards

The Society of Systematic Biologists is pleased to offer Mini-ARTS awards to enhance taxonomic knowledge. These awards are for revisionary taxonomy and systematics, modeled after the NSF Dear Colleague Letter: Advancing Revisionary Taxonomy and Systematics (ARTS) developed within the Systematics and Biodiversity Science Cluster. We are calling these 'Mini-ARTS' grants. These awards are designed to allow SSB members (students, post-docs, and faculty) to spend a summer or semester apprenticed to an expert in a particular taxonomic group or to enhance revisionary taxonomic and systematics research in novel ways. Goals of this award program are to address constraints on our knowledge of undescribed biodiversity, assist in passing on taxonomic expertise before it is lost, increase the number of students with broad training in organismal biology and systematics, and support projects in biodiversity and taxonomy informatics as well as monographic and revisionary taxonomy. Activities can include a trip to the taxonomist's laboratory, pay for the taxonomist to visit the applicant's laboratory for a period of time, or pay for costs of computer time or development of interactive keys for electronic dissemination of systematics results. Requests for support may be in any amount up to $4,000. The rubric with which these submissions will be judged is posted here.

2021 Mini-ARTS Applications

The Mini-ARTS competition 2021 is now open

Applicants may be from any country, but must be members of SSB, and are advised to join the Society as soon as possible to facilitate their applications. Use the button below to go to the application form.

Application materials required:
  • a curriculum vitae (1 page maximum)
  • a brief description of the project, including a separate section justifying the importance of the taxon and the revisionary work with literature cited (2 pages maximum) 
  • budget ($4,000 limit) and budget justification (2 page maximum)
All application materials must be submitted as a single PDF file using the application form given above by August 15, 2021 by 23:59 US Eastern Day Time.​ The rubric with which these submissions will be judged is posted here.

One letter of support must be submitted to the system from:
  • the taxonomic expert collaborator 
  • If the applicant is a student or post-doc, please also include a reference letter from the advisor
  • The taxonomic exper letter of support should follow this format:
    • "If the proposal submitted by [insert the full name of submitter] entitled [insert the proposal title] is selected for funding by SSB, it is my intent to collaborate and/or commit resources as detailed in the proposal Project Description."
  • The adviser letter of support should follow this format:
    • "I declare that I have read the proposal entitled  [insert the proposal title] and commit to advising  [insert the full name of submitter] if their project is selected for funding by SSB."
Recommended format:
  • Format: 2 pages (8.5”X11”), 1” margins, 1.5 line spacing, text Times New Roman font no smaller than 12 pt. Figure captions can be Arial, no smaller than 10 pt. References can be Arial, no smaller than 8 pt.
  • Suggested section headings: “Background on System”, “Proposed Goals and Approach”, “Significance” and “References.”

Contact

Please email the SSB Awards Director at awards@systematicbiologists.org if you have any questions

Recent Mini-ARTS Awardees

2018
  • Matthew Jones, Univesity of Kansas
  • Talita Praia, Museu Nacional do Rio de Janeiro/Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro
  • Patricia Alvarez-Campos, Oxford Brookes University
  • Rocio Deanna, Multidisciplinary Institute of Plant Biology (IMBIV, CONICET-UNC)
  • Carlos Ruiz, Auburn University
  • Jennifer Ackerfield, Colorado State University
  • Joel Mercado-Diaz, The University of Chicago
  • Luciana Pereira da Silva, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Brazil
  • Thais Elias Almeida, Universidade Federal do Oeste do Pará
  • Marco Cedeno Fonseca, Universidad de Costa Rica
  • Erin Krichlisky, National Taiwan Normal University
  • Nicolas Mongiardino Koch, Yale University

2017
  • Gema Alama-Bermejo, National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET, Argentina)
  • Nathalie Baena Bejarano, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • Natalie Hamilton, The Ohio State University
  • Chelsea Pretz, University of Colorado Boulder
  • Salvatore Anzaldo, Arizona State University
  • Carmen Cobo, University of Santiago de Compostela
  • Ryan Fuller, University of Chicago
  • Gareth Powell, Brigham Young University
  • Nikolaos Schizas, University of Puerto Rico Mayaguez
​
2016
  • Jaaziel E. Garcia-Hernandez, University of Puerto Rico
  • A.J. Harris, Smithsonian Institution
  • Dawson White, University of Illinois, Chicago
  • James Bernot, George Washington University
  • Guanyang Zhang, Arizona State University
  • Tania Pineda-Enriquez, University of Florida