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The Society for the Study of Evolution (SSE) is pleased to announce the 2025 Graduate Research Excellence Grant (GREG) R. C. Lewontin Award competition. These awards offer up to $2,500 USD to assist students in the early stages of their graduate programs. These grants are part of the Graduate Research Excellence Grants award program.
PhD students in their first two years of their program and Master's students in the first year of their program are eligible. Eligibility can be confirmed by the advisor or graduate director stating that the student is an early-stage doctoral student. Previous applicants to the GREG Rosemary Grant Advanced Award are no longer early in their programs, thus are ineligible to apply to the GREG R. C. Lewontin Early Award.
Student applicants must be members of SSE, and are advised to join SSE, if not already members, as soon as possible to facilitate their applications. To become a member, visit https://payments.evolutionsociety.org/joinsse/.
Previous awardees of either GREG award may not re-apply. Previous applicants to the GREG R. C. Lewontin Award who were not selected for funding are welcome to re-apply if they still meet the other eligibility requirements.
This award is not limited to students in the United States.
Students do not have to be enrolled in an evolutionary biology program to apply, but proposals must address a topic in evolutionary biology.
Please direct any questions about eligibility to communications@evolutionsociety.org.
Funding is not limited to any particular aspect of research (but see FAQs below). Funds can be used to collect preliminary data (to pursue additional sources of support) or to enhance the scope of their research beyond current funding limits (e.g. by visiting additional field sites, or working at other labs). Recipients are not required to use the awarded funds by a certain time, and may deviate from any timeline described in their proposal.
Students should confirm that the proposed work is outside the scope of other funding held by either the student or their advisor.
Awards will range from $1,500 - $2,500 USD.
Indirect costs may not be charged to this award.
You must be a member of SSE to access the application. Join or renew your membership here.
Log in to access the award application here. Use your SSE member username and password. If you have forgotten your username or password, you will be able to reset it.
After you log in, click “Submit a new Proposal for ‘2025 R. C. Lewontin Early Award’” to access the application.
The application will request two documents:
Research Proposal Formatting Requirements:
Budget Requirements:
Please upload your proposal and budget as a single file.
Advisor Letter Requirements
The letter should be signed by your thesis advisor or graduate director. This should include confirmation that the applicant is in the first two years of their PhD program or the first year of their Master’s program.
Sample letter:
Dear Selection Committee,
This letter confirms that [Student Name] is eligible for the SSE GREG - R. C. Lewontin Early Award. I am [Student Name]’s supervisor. [Student Name] is in the first year of their Master's program.
Sincerely,
[Advisor/Graduate Director Name]
Note: This letter is *not* a letter of recommendation. Only include the information requested.
How to Write Your Research Proposal
Your research proposal should include the objectives, methods, significance, and schedule of your project, including how the award would enhance your thesis work. Focus on convincing the selection committee of the importance of the question, how the funds will allow you to reach certain objectives and expand the scope of your thesis work, and how these objectives fit into your overall thesis project.
Proposals will be evaluated anonymously. Do not include your name in the research proposal.
General proposal structure:
Background
- Start with the big picture: What is the context of your proposed research? What is already known about this area of study?
- Summarize previous research in this field: What findings will your work build upon? What are the gaps in our knowledge that your research will try to answer?
Research Objective
- State your specific hypothesis: What is your research question? What will you learn from this study? How will it address a gap in our knowledge of this field?
Methods
- Data collection: What data will you collect, and how?
- Data analysis: How will you analyze your data?
- Connection to research objective: How will collecting these data allow you to answer your research question?
Significance/Impact
- How does this research fit into your overall dissertation?
- What effect will these findings have on the field?
- How will this grant help you achieve your research goals?
References
- References may be submitted in any style or format, as long as it is consistent throughout the proposal.
Other notes:
- Use first-person singular pronouns ("I", "me", and "my", not "we", "us", and"our") to describe what you will do.
- Define any jargon terms that people outside of your specific area of research may not know.
- If possible, have someone else proofread your proposal to check for grammar and spelling errors.
Sample Research Proposals
Links to samples of successfully funded proposals are available on the award application form. Please note that these proposals are not meant to be prescriptive, and are not indicative of what proposals will be funded in this award cycle. They are only meant to be examples of the structure and language used in previously successful proposals. These proposals are posted with permission of the authors.
Demographic Information
The application also requests demographic information. Your answers to these questions will not be visible to the review committee during proposal evaluation. Answering demographic questions is voluntary — each question includes an option not to answer, and you may choose to answer as many or as few questions as you wish. Anonymized, aggregate responses will be used to assess demographic patterns in applicants and awardees and to assess any potential bias in awarding, as part of our efforts to pursue equity in awards and grants.
In an effort to better serve student applicants around the globe, a portion of these awards will be reserved for students whose undergraduate or graduate institution is located in one of the countries eligible for discounted membership through our Global Membership Assistance program.
Learn more about what data will be collected and how they will be used.
Submitting Your Application
At the bottom of the application, you have the option to SAVE or COMPLETE your application. Click SAVE to save your work and come back to it later. Click COMPLETE to submit your application. Your application must be marked as COMPLETE in order to be scored.
After you submit your materials by clicking COMPLETE, you should receive an email confirmation of receipt within 72 hours. If you do not, please contact SSE-Manager@EvolutionSociety.org.
You should receive an email confirmation of receipt of your materials within 72 hours. If you do not, please contact SSE-Manager@EvolutionSociety.org.
Please contact Kati Moore at communications@evolutionsociety.org with any questions about how to apply.
Deadline
February 19, 2025, 5:00 PM Eastern Standard Time (GMT-5:00)
Applications will be reviewed on the following two broad criteria:
1. Proposal structure, logic, and clarity
(A) Motivation of research: How well does the proposal situate the project in the context of the field by stating the big-picture question and/or the broader significance?
(B) Clarity of hypotheses or questions: Are the specific hypotheses or research questions clearly stated? Does the proposal provide sufficient rationale so that the evaluator can understand the logic behind the hypotheses or questions?
(C) Connection between objectives and design: Does the proposal clearly and explicitly tie the hypothesis or research questions and the methods to the broad motivating question? Are the proposed methods appropriate to test the stated hypotheses/research questions?
(D) Explanation of methods / analysis: Does the proposal provide enough explanation of the proposed methods, in language that can be understood by an educated but non-expert reviewer?
2. Scientific contribution
Does the proposed project address an unresolved topic, in a novel or interesting way, that is likely to move the field of evolutionary biology forward?
All applicants will receive decisions on their proposals in May via email and will be able to access reviewer comments via the application portal.
Award recipients will be announced on the SSE website and at the Evolution meeting during the SSE Presidential Address. SSE would be pleased if you consider submitting work funded by the R. C. Lewontin award to Evolution or Evolution Letters. Note that as a student SSE member publishing in Evolution, you would be eligible to apply for the SSE Presidents’ Award for Outstanding Paper in Evolution.
All work published with funds from the award should acknowledge the work as funded by the Graduate Research Excellence Grant - R. C. Lewontin Early Award from SSE. Please send a link to your paper to communications@evolutionsociety.org after publication for our internal records and so that we may promote your work on social media.
Awards are typically subject to 1099 reporting, and thus must be included as income by the recipient. All awardees will need to fill out an IRS. W-9 form whether or not they are a U.S. citizen, and whether or not they attend a U.S. university. To avoid paying tax on the award, awardees may have their check deposited in a university research account. This award covers direct costs of research only; institutional indirect costs may not be charged to this award. Non-U.S. citizens and those not filing U.S. tax returns are required to set up a separate university account to receive this award.
Members are encouraged to contribute to the Graduate Research Excellence Grants fund when renewing their membership!
If I get the award, do I have to use the funds by a certain time?
No - there is no fixed timeline for using the funds and there are no formal reporting requirements beyond acknowledgement in a resulting publication.
My faculty advisor isn’t a member of SSE - am I eligible?
Yes, if you meet the other requirements - faculty advisors are no longer required to be members of SSE.
I received an R. C. Lewontin Early Award already. Can I apply for this award again?
No. Previous recipients of the R. C. Lewontin Early Award are ineligible to receive the award again.
I applied for an R. C. Lewontin Early Award last year but didn’t receive it. Can I apply for this award again?
Yes. Previous applicants who were not selected for funding are welcome to re-apply, providing they still meet the eligibility requirements.
I applied for a Rosemary Grant Advanced Award last year but didn’t receive it. Can I apply for the R. C. Lewontin Early Award this year?
No. Previous applicants to the Rosemary Grant Advanced Award are ineligible to apply for the R. C. Lewontin Early Award. We encourage you to apply for the Rosemary Grant Advanced Award in the fall.
If I receive an R. C. Lewontin Early Award, does that make me ineligible to receive a Rosemary Grant Advanced Award?
No. Receiving an R. C. Lewontin Early Award does not preclude you from receiving a Rosemary Grant Advanced Award, as long as you meet the other requirements and at least one year has passed since you received the Lewontin Early Award.
Can I use the award to pay part of my own salary?
No, salaries are not considered a research expense for this award. Awarded funds, can, however, be used to pay hourly wages for student research assistants.
Can I use the award to attend a meeting or workshop?
No. Meeting or workshop attendance and/or travel are not considered research expenses for this award. Funds may be used for other research-related travel, however, including travel and lodging for field collecting or sample analysis.
Can I use the award to purchase a computer?
No. Computers are not considered a research expense for this award.
