Financial Support

Grants-in-Aid.  A number of grants-in-aid are available to predoctoral graduate students and postdoctoral investigators for the support of research on the habitats and organisms of the Southern Appalachians. Grant recipients are expected to spend time in residence at HBS, as both they and other researchers and students benefit from such interaction. Support may be awarded for one to twelve weeks.  Applications for grants are reviewed by the Board of Scientific Advisors in March of the year for which support is requested.  Application cover sheets and instructions for preparing proposals can be downloaded here.  Cover sheets and text must be submitted before 5:00 p.m. EST on 1 March.  Applicants are notified in early April, following final approval by the Board of Directors.

Awards are based on the period of residence at HBS according to the following schedule:  Predoctoral, $300/week; Postdoctoral, $400/week. Recipients of grants-in-aid are provided research space without charge.

Grant-in-aid of Research Application

Scholarships.  A number of named scholarships have been endowed at the Station and are described below.  These represent honors awarded to particularly meritorious projects.  They do not provide funding in addition to the basic stipend, which is calculated simply on the basis of number of weeks in residence.

Thelma Howell Memorial Scholarship

“Doc”  Howell served with distinction as Executive Director of the Station from 1946 to 1972. Upon her death in 1979, the Highlands Biological Foundation, Inc., established a scholarship fund in her memory, to support investigators at HBS.

William Chambers Coker Fellowship in Botanical Research

Dr. W. C. Coker, Professor of Botany at the University of North Carolina, served as the second Director of the Highlands Biological Station from 1936 to 1944.  His wife, Louise V. Coker, through a bequest of her will in 1983, established the William Chambers Coker Fellowship in Botanical Research to be awarded annually to an investigator studying plants or fungi. 

Ralph M. Sargent Memorial Scholarship

Dr. Ralph Sargent, Professor of English at Haverford College, was a naturalist, botanist, and conservationist who had a long association with the Station.  Upon his death in 1985, a scholarship was established by Dr. Sargent's family and friends to support students conducting research at the Station.

Lindsay S. Olive Memorial Scholarship

Dr. Lindsay Olive of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was a distinguished botanist and mycologist.  A scholarship was established in his memory in 1993 by Ruth Gershon and Sanford Cohn of Atlanta and has been supported through generous gifts from Ms. Gershon, Mr. Cohn, and Anna Jean Olive.  The scholarship is awarded annually to a student whose research reflects the interests of Dr. Olive.

Charles W. Ash Memorial Scholarship

Dr. Charles Ash was a statistician who had a strong interest in the natural world.  Following his death in 1993, a scholarship was established in his memory through the efforts of his family and friends.  The scholarship is awarded annually to a promising student whose research reflects Dr. Ash's interests in statistics and experimental design.

Bruce Family Scholarship in Herpetology

Dr. Richard C. Bruce served as Executive Director of the Station from 1972 to 1999, assisted by his wife Elizabeth. In 1997 they established a scholarship to support the research of graduate students, as well as postdoctoral investigators in the early stages of their careers, in the discipline of Southern Appalachian herpetology. 

All applicants for grants-in-aid are eligible for the Coker, Howell, Sargent, Olive, Ash, and Bruce awards, subject to any constraints described above.  They will be awarded by the Highlands Biological Foundation, Inc., upon recommendation of the Board of Scientific Advisors and approval by the Board of Directors of the Station.  Announcements of the awards are made in early spring of each year, concurrent with notifications of grants-in-aid.

Current Grant-in-Aid Funded Projects