The Nagao Natural Environment Foundation (NEF) has launched the NEF Commemorative Grant Fund for Capacity Building of Young Scientists (CGF) Programme, for a 10-year period up to 2025, aiming at capacity building of young scientists in developing countries of the Asia-Pacific region; both of the CGF Programme and the ongoing Research Grant Programme (under the NEF Research Grant Scheme) will be simultaneously progressed.
The CGF Programme is directed towards helping young scientists in this region grow up as worldclass scientists in the areas of, or related to, conservation of wildlife and ecosystem in their own country or in the Asia-Pacific region.
In this programme, research projects with high priority include fieldwork-based studies which are scientifically outstanding and socioculturally sound. Each project should be implemented by a project scientist (PS) from Asia-Pacific developing countries, with adequate support of, and collaboration with, a project coordinator (PC), who has excellent scientific achievements and intends to take responsibilities for the research project.
Funding Information
The maximum grant size is 1,500,000 Japanese yen per project, while additional budget for the PC is available for his/her expenses of travel to the study site of the PS.
The total annual budget for the CGF Programme amounts to 20,000,000 Japanese yen.
Basically, two years, although, for the cases that the PS is a doctor course student, the funded duration may be extended to the minimum years needed for conferment of doctor degree from the university/college where he/she is enrolled.
Eligible Research Fields
The research project is expected to contribute to nature conservation of the country where the PS lives, or currently works or studies, focusing on living organisms, especially wildlife and ecosystem, from such standpoints/foci as follows:
biology, especially ecology, taxonomy, and distribution and current status of wildlife,
biodiversity (i.e., species diversity, genetic diversity, and ecosystem diversity),
threatened species, alien species, and restoration of ecosystem, and/or
relationships between nature and humans (e.g., ecosystem services and sustainable use of biological resources).
Target Countries
The target countries in the Asia-Pacific region include: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, Fiji, Indonesia, Kiribati, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Micronesia (Federal of), Mongolia, Myanmar, Nauru, Nepal, Palau, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, and Vietnam.
Eligibility Criteria
The Project Scientist (PS) must:
be a national of one of the countries, less than 40 years old,
be a researcher, who works or studies full-time in a university or research institution in one of the countries, under any of the following three situations:
having a PhD or Doctor’s degree,
being/to be enrolled in a doctor (PhD) course of the university/research institution, or
having at least 3 years of research work experience and sound record of scholarly publications, AND
be not a recipient of on-going research or publication project of the NEF nor an applicant of any other grant of the NEF, at the time of application.
