Guyanese urged to apply for Ireland’s funding to address oceans, climate action

Ireland’s Mobility and Travel Grants 2023 are one of several competitive opportunities available to Guyanese seeking to address specific ocean, climate and sustainable blue economy-related challenges faced by small island developing states (SIDS).
The grant also provides a platform to support the building of scientific and technical capacity to address such challenges, and promote the exchange of knowledge and expertise between Irish institutions and their counterparts in SIDS to underpin longer-term cooperation.
This grant and seven others, available under the “Our Shared Ocean” programme, is funded through Irish Aid, Ireland’s programme for overseas development, and managed by Ireland’s Marine Institute (MI).
The three award categories under the Mobility and Travel Grants 2023 are: research conferences and workshops, for which a minimum grant aid of €500 and maximum grant-aid of €2,000 can be received; training courses, which award the same amounts as the prior category; and research visits, for which the maximum grant-aid available is €6000.
The research conferences and workshops category offers students and early-stage researchers from eligible SIDS to present their marine research on international platforms. As such, applications for this award are open to students currently carrying out an undergraduate or postgraduate degree in a marine-related discipline, and registered at an academic institution; research assistants carrying out marine-related research and employed at academic or research institutions; early-stage postdoctoral contract researchers carrying out marine-related research and employed at academic or research institutions, with early stage being within six years of PhD awards; and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and other representative organisations, though SME/NGO representatives, are not required to present at international conferences/ workshops.

On the other hand, the second award category allows researchers to undertake training courses of a short duration in a topic that is beneficial to their marine research. This award is open to researchers in marine or marine-related research from eligible SIDS hosted in a public or private research- performing organisation.
The third award category –research visits – provides visits by researchers of up to one calendar month to exchange information between Ireland and SIDS, to test research methods or technology, and to establish new international partnerships in marine research of mutual interest.
This award is open to researchers in marine or marine-related research from eligible SIDS hosted in public research-performing organisation (RPO) in Ireland as well as an Irish public or private RPO hosted in a RPO (public or private) in an eligible SIDS.
The Mobility and Travel Grants call will remain open on a two-monthly rolling basis, subject
to continued funding availability and submission deadlines, which are: July 7, September 1 and November 3 (for events up to March 31, 2024).
Applications must be submitted via the Marine Institute’s online Application System Research Information Management System (RIMS). Application forms are available to download from RIMS.
Though prior to applying, it is recommended to familiarise yourselves with the opportunities available and the applicant guidelines made available on the Marine Institute’s website, or email [email protected] for further clarification, if necessary.
Among the other seven opportunities available are the Our Shared Ocean Fellowship 2023, Networking and Marine Research Communication Awards 2023, and Our Shared Ocean Master’s Degree Scholarships 2023.