TREE Fund

Tree Research & Education Endowment Fund

Bob Skiera Memorial Fund Building Bridges Initiative Grant Program

Introduction

Bob Skiera was an urban forestry pioneer, known for his ability to communicate the needs and benefits of the urban forest and helped build bridges of trust and cooperation between urban foresters and other urban planning and management professionals. He was a past President of both the International Society of Arboriculture and the Wisconsin Arborist Association, served memorably as a Milwaukee City Forester and is a member of the Wisconsin Forestry Hall of Fame.

Established jointly by TREE Fund, the Skiera Family, Wisconsin Arborist Association and the International Society of Arboriculture, The Bob Skiera Memorial Fund now provides financial support for the “Building Bridges Initiative”. The Initiative is intended to help arborists and urban foresters communicate the value of trees and urban forests through engagement via collaborative research and other projects with public works officials, risk assessment professionals, civil engineers, wildlife researchers, soil scientists and others. The maximum award value of grants under the Building Bridges Initiative is $30,000, with $25,000 provided annually by the Bob Skiera Memorial Fund and $5,000 provided annually by the John White Memorial Fund.

Note: The 2023 Building Bridges Initiative Grant(s) will be focused on research to facilitate or engage interactions between urban forest managers, arborists, and other professionals committed to maximizing value/use of the urban forest resource. Suggested areas of investigation (this list is not all-inclusive) might include:

· Quantitative and/or qualitative analysis of urban forest benefits to humans and communities;

· Policy formation and program implementation;

· “Nature Based Solutions”;

· Ecosystem services;

· Etc.

TREE Fund welcomes research proposals and applications from a wide range of academic and technical disciplines, of both a qualitative and a quantitative nature. TREE Fund does not fund the following types of projects, and will not accept applications for such work:

· Grants to individuals;

· Projects that are primarily municipal tree surveys or assessments;

· Tree planting programs;

· Studies of individual tree species for the primary purpose of agricultural or timber/forest planting yield;

· Commercial tree- or soil-related product testing primarily for the benefit of the company that manufactures the product.

 

APPLICATION PROCESS

The first step to apply for this grant is to send an email containing a brief Letter of Inquiry (LOI) of no more than 100 words describing your project title and concept to treefund@treefund.org between August 1, 2023 and September 15, 2023. Your LOI must clearly identify the Principal Investigator and Institution who will be contracted for the work should your application be approved. Also note in your LOI that you wish to apply to the Bob Skiera Memorial Fund Building Bridges Initiatives Grant program.

TREE Fund will evaluate whether your LOI concept meets all of our application criteria and is deemed to have a reasonable possibility of success given the year’s research priorities. If and only if your LOI is approved, TREE Fund will send you a numbered application form for your use. You may not apply without such a numbered application form, and the number of applications so provided each grant making cycle may be limited. TREE Fund determinations on whether an LOI meets the application criteria are final and not negotiable. Your completed application will only be accepted and reviewed between August 1, 2023 to October 1, 2023.

Upon completion of this application form, you will save a Word version for your records, then create a PDF version of the completed document with title in the format “PI Surname, Grant Program, Application Number” (e.g. “Smith, Skiera, #19-023”), and email it as an attachment to treefund@treefund.org with a PDF of PI and Co-PI (if applicable) CVs. Staff will confirm receipt of your application at that time.

In addition to contact and CV information for the PI, Co-PI(s), and any student assistants, applicants will need the following information to complete the form. Note well that word count limits are firm and absolute. Exceeding word counts may result in your application being rejected before review. Applicants should compose their text in Word or related systems that allow counts to be confirmed before they are placed in the application form.

Project Description:

  • Overall Project Summary, Including Overarching Goals (400 Words Maximum): A brief statement of the current issue/problem and its impact on arboriculture, urban forestry, and the professions that are involved with researching, planning, designing, growing, planting, managing and/or otherwise maintaining urban trees; and goals of the proposed research.
  • Description of Measurable Outputs/Outcomes (250 Words Maximum): Include a list of the tangible outputs (publications, extension/outreach materials, posters, etc.) from this project and identify up to five measurable outcomes (real changes in day-to-day urban forest design or management) that are expected to result from work proposed.
  • Current Knowledge/Past Research in Project Area (1,000 Words Maximum, excluding in-text literature citations as described at the end of this section): Description of what is known about the problem/project area and with reference to previous attempts to address it where appropriate; a review of literature and past experiences of the investigative team.
  • Project Work Plan (1,500 Words Maximum): Clearly define the scope of the work to be performed, including hypotheses, design, methodology and analyses. Any anticipated proprietary elements of proposed research must be identified clearly in the initial application. Should applications fail to make such declarations, TREE Fund reserves the right to negotiate royalties from patents, sales, copyrights, or other commercial results of funded research.
  • Dissemination Plans (300 Words Maximum): A brief description of activities and outlets used to share the results of this project. Be sure communications with both academic and practitioner communities are addressed. It is TREE Fund’s explicit desire that research findings eventually be freely and widely available to any and all parties who may benefit from the author’s work. At the same time, TREE Fund recognizes the importance of academic and professional journal publications and will work with recipients to ensure that findings are disseminated in a manner that is cognizant of all parties’ schedules and needs.
  • Literature Cited: It may be useful to refer reviewers to previous work published elsewhere. In such cases, cite appropriate works in your text in “Author(s), year” format (e.g. “Smith, 2014” or “Jones et.al., 2003”) and then list those citations alphabetically by first author’s last name as indicated in the following link from the American Phytopathological Society: https://apsjournals.apsnet.org/page/authorinformation#litcited

Budget Elements, Including:

  • Institutional Compensation, Stipends and Benefits
  • Travel and Transportation
  • Equipment (e.g. Vehicles, Growth Chambers, Etc.)
  • Other Materials and Supplies (e.g. Paper, Ink, Etc.)
  • Contract Labor (Consultants, Speakers, Etc.)
  • Institutional Overhead (Maximum 10%)
  • Other/Miscellaneous
  • Cash or In-Kind Funding from Other Sources (Minimum 10%; unrecovered institutional overhead may be applied to meet this minimum)

CRITERIA FOR SELECTION

Staff will screen all applications for applicant eligibility, adherence to submission directions (including word counts), alignment with the TREE Fund mission, and compliance with minimum requirements.  Proposals meeting these criteria are then forwarded to the TREE Fund’s Research and Education Committee for a more thorough and competitive evaluation.  Prospective applicants can be sure that reviewers will place highest emphasis on:

  • Prior record of accomplishment by the investigative team.  (Scientists early in their research careers may wish to include others with more research experience as active co-investigators or advisors)
  • Potential contribution of the project to the arboricultural industry.
  • Approach, including statement of hypotheses and experimental design
  • Dissemination plan to the scientific community and to tree care professionals

TREE Fund does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, creed, gender, sexual orientation, disability or national or ethnic origin. Current trustees of TREE Fund or any member of the family of any such trustee are ineligible to receive grants from TREE Fund.

AWARD PROCESS AND FUNDS DISTRIBUTION

Recommendations on grant awards will be presented by the Research Committee to the TREE Fund Board of Trustees for approval in December 2023, and grant recipient(s) will be notified in writing within one month of Trustee approval. A Grant Agreement form that includes a payment and reporting schedule will be provided with award notification. It must be completed within one month of notification, and returned to TREE Fund with all required supporting documentation.

Applicants are most strongly encouraged to review the sample Grant Agreement form (which can be viewed here) with their employers’ financial or grant management offices prior to submitting an application, to ensure that the Agreement forms can be signed expeditiously upon receipt. Potential difficulties with Agreement terms that are identified during the application process may be considered and negotiated more favorably than those presented after the grant award process.

REPORTING REQUIREMENTS

It is TREE Fund’s explicit desire that research findings eventually be freely and widely available to any and all parties who may benefit from the author’s work. At the same time, TREE Fund recognizes the importance of academic and professional journal publications and will work with grant recipients to ensure that findings are disseminated in a manner that is cognizant of all parties’ schedules and needs. Recipients should inform TREE Fund when funded research findings are published or presented at conferences so that these accomplishments can be widely publicized. Recipients should also recognize the support provided by TREE Fund in their articles or presentations related to the funded project. Recipients are strongly encouraged to publish findings to relevant professional journals, i.e. Arboriculture and Urban Forestry, Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, Arboricultural Journal, Trees: Structure and Function, Journal of Horticultural Science and Biotechnology, Plant Pathology, Hortscience, Horticultural Science, Sustainable Development, Landscape and Urban Planning, Journal of Urban Health, Environment and Urbanization, Urban Ecosystems, etc.