Minigrant Project Timeline
Minigrant Project Timeline
| First: | A Request for Proposals is distributed in early January of each year for scientists to submit proposals for ATBI projects. |
| Second: | A team of senior scientists from the DLIA Board, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and the United States Geological Survey evaluate proposals and offer grants. |
| Third: | The DLIA Science Committee Chair then notifies grantees and unsuccessful proposers of the team's decisions on or about 1 April. The Principal Investigator (PI, Lead Scientist) of each funded project then communicates with database managers, Dr. Michael Kunze or Dr. Chuck Parker, to get instructions about data entry procedures. Upon certification of such instruction, 1/2 of the allowable funding is sent within 30 days to the PI's institution, along with an acceptance letter and further instructions on expected project products and timetable for data, report, and other applicable commitments. |
| Fourth: | The Project scientist(s) conduct(s) field work during the year of the proposal, collecting specimens and recording observations. |
| Fifth: | The PI oversees the processing of specimens and/or observations, and the entry of data into the specially-structured ATBI database via Park-developed database interface software. |
| Sixth: | The PI then submits georeferenced data and a final report to DLIA by 1 March in the year following the initial award. The data go to the DLIA database technical staff, and the report to the DLIA Board Science Committee Chair. |
| Seventh: | The DLIA Database Technician quality-checks and, with interaction and cooperation from the PI, corrects and prepares the data to be appended to the Park's main ATBI database. |
| Eighth: | On acceptance of the report (using the standard cover page ) by the DLIA Science Committee Chairman, and the declaration that the data are of the quality required for the ATBI main database (final determination by the Park Database Manager), the final half of the grant funds is sent to the PI. |
| * Other products may be delivered from the ATBI Project. These may include a spoken presentation or poster at DLIA's annual ATBI Conference (near the Park in Gatlinburg, TN); specially-contracted delivery of data from identification of backlogged preserved specimens from past samplings; updated lists of species; materials for web-based species pages; etc. |
