Community and Citizen Science in Conservation Fellowship
Training, mentorship, and funding for graduate students in conservation
The Center for Community and
Citizen Science offers the Community and Citizen Science in
Conservation Fellowship to support graduate students across
disciplines in integrating participatory methods to research.
Effective conservation brings together research, partnerships across disciplines and sectors, and a commitment to iterative learning that supports long-term stewardship. In conservation science, community and citizen science (CCS) approaches can be especially powerful and yield valuable data while also advancing other parts of a conservation program, such as education and community engagement. However, formal training in CCS is not yet widely available for graduate students pursuing degrees in conservation science. Whatever their career paths, graduate students can benefit from an awareness of, and experiences with CCS approaches, applied in a conservation context.
The Fellowship provides graduate students in conservation with the opportunity for training, funding, and guided hands-on experience with CCS. To qualify for the fellowship, graduate students must complete a 10-week seminar in the spring exploring CCS approaches and applications broadly related to conservation. Accepted fellows will be awarded a stipend for research support and given mentorship and professional development opportunities throughout the following academic year.
Community and Citizen Science in Conservation seminar
The Center for Community and
Citizen Science offers a 2-unit ”Community and Citizen
Science in Conservation” seminar at UC Davis. The seminar
involves weekly discussion and exploration of community and
citizen science (CCS) approaches and applications broadly related
to conservation. With an emphasis on recent academic literature,
each class focuses on a different topic such as equity and
justice, project design and implementation, and participant and
conservation benefits. Other topics are identified and explored
based on student interest. This seminar allows
students to develop ideas for CCS projects within their own
research.
Students who complete the seminar are eligible to apply for the CCS in Conservation Fellowship, offered annually by the UC Davis Center for Community and Citizen Science.
If you have any questions, please contact Ryan Meyer, rmmeyer@ucdavis.edu.
2023 Partnerships
We are excited to partner with two centers of excellence at UC Davis to expand the CCSiC Fellowship program: the Institute for the Environment, and the Coastal and Marine Sciences Institute. These partnerships allow us to increase the number of fellowships available, and expand the professional development and networking opportunities provided to graduate students during their fellowship experience.
