Fellowships to tackle problem of global industrial food animal production.

• The fellowships are meant primarily for academic researchers (including independent scholars) interested in helping to address negative impacts of global industrial food animal production (especially in low- and middle-income countries).
•  All applicants must hold PhD/doctoral degree or be enrolled in PhD/doctoral programs.
• There are no restrictions as to applicants’ residence / citizenship / location.
• 3 total fellowship awards are available: 1 for US$25,000 (for a team of 2-4 researchers); 1 for $20,000 (for an individual with PhD); 1 for $15,000 (for an individual enrolled in PhD program).
• The award period is four months. (Start date preferably in July or August 2019.)
• Application Opens: March 15, 2019. Closes: May 31, 2019
Please go to the foundation’s website tinybeamfund.org , and see under “Burning Questions Fellowship Awards” for more information and to apply.

Why offer this program? What is its purpose?

• For academic researchers:
  • There are academic researchers interested in the negative impacts of global industrial food animal production – from PhD candidates to senior scholars – who would like their research to be of practical use and value to the real world. They want to pick issues that are important to actual persons, to increase the chance that their research is used by those mostly likely to benefit from it. But they face challenges.
    • It is not always obvious what these real world needs are. And it is not easy to find out.
    • Disseminating and making accessible their research findings to those who need them may pose another conundrum. (The traditional approach is that researchers decide what to study and let their peers know about the findings; it is up to others to take care of how these findings are spread and applied outside academe.)
    • Furthermore, academic researchers are often not incentivized or rewarded for work intended primarily to serve societal needs.
  • The fellowship awards provide academic researchers with concrete opportunities to prepare short plain language documents that shed light on front-line persons’ “burning questions”. The program also communicates these documents to front-line persons on behalf of the researchers. Fellows can also use the award period to undertake work that advances their own research but related (or unrelated) to deliverables required by the program.