For Prospective Applicants

Prairie Biotic Research Small Grants

Comments from Award Winners

First, I would like to thank you for funding the Mississippi River Bluffs invertebrate survey. I appreciate Prairie Biotic Research, Inc., for funding projects outside the boundary of large institutions and their research money. For me, Lepidoptera research is generally a self-funded venture in all aspects -- from field work to supplies and literature. This opportunity will boaden our knowledge in an area of Illinois that is lacking even the most basic survey research data. Without this type of funding this would not be possible as the expenses involved often determine my priorities. These grant funds will certainly help defray the costs incurred in this project. The only improvement I would recommend in this program would be funding of additional research projects of this type. Again, I must stress how grateful researchers like me are at having this type of grant opportunity. As you are well aware, there are many capable scientists that have vast knowledge of their particular regions. Without institutional affiliations their work is greatly limited, and funding options few, on what would be very worthwhile projects

James Wiker (IL)
"Lepidoptera survey on hill prairies & glades of Mississippi River bluffs" (2009)

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For Prospective Applicants

Samples and Forms for Applications

PBR funds individuals with grants up to $1500 (prior to 2018, our limit was $1000) in our competitive annual Small Grants Program. We support the study of any species in U.S. prairies and savannas. Over 18 years PBR has funded 335 grants totaling $349,581 to researchers in 38 states. More than half of these grants supported graduate students. What makes this activity so urgent is that these habitats and the species that live there are vanishing. We are gathering information that may slow this terrible erosion of our natural heritage, while fostering the development of these researchers, thereby sustaining our cultural heritage. We can be only as successful in this effort as we are in raising the money that we give away.

Our 2019 Small Grants Program began in October, 2018, and concluded in March, 2019. This is the last time we'll offer this Small Grants Program, at least for some years, as we have no time to run it.

Should we resume our Small Grants Program, updated files relating to proposal submission will be posted here.

To have your email address added to the announcement address list, please send a short message requesting this, at any time through our Contact form.

Process and Values

How we make decisions

We support basic field biological research on all taxa in U.S. prairies and savannas, but we are especially eager to support research on taxa for which funding is scarce, such as insects, fungi, reptiles, spiders, etc. We don't fund many bird projects, in part because there are generally more funds available for the study of birds.

How Can I Help?

Your tax-deductible contribution is needed

Prairie Biotic Research, Inc. has benefitted from generous gifts of various foundations, and both non-profit and for-profit businesses. These are augmented by gifts from individuals concerned with our prairies. Indeed, we can only offer small grants with continued financial support. Please consider joining these enterprises as a donor to Prairie Biotic Research.