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IWSG Small Projects Grants

Since 2016, the International Wader Study Group annually funds small projects.The IWSG Small Projects Grants aim to support shorebird studies that otherwise will not go ahead. This could be all sorts of projects related to waders (shorebirds): ecological and/or conservation research, pilot studies looking at biological aspects of a single or a few species, or counts of staging birds at unexplored sites. Or something completely different! Application is open for IWSG members who have a project idea that could be undertaken if supported with a small amount of money (currently 1500 Euros per project).

In the below link you can find a description of criteria and the application form. The IWSG Executive Committee has appointed an evaluation committee that will judge the applications, and decide which project will be awarded.

The call for 2023 (field work 2024) is open. Please note, deadline will be 1st December 2023.

Applications should be submitted by 1st December of each year, and a decision will be made before 1st May the following year.

 

Application form IWSG Small Project Grants Call

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The 2022 IWSG Small Grant winner

We are happy to announce that we have chosen to award the 2022 IWSG Small Grants to:

Thomas Lameris: Nest associations of egg-predating Ruddy Turnstones
and chick-predating Arctic Skuas (Varanger Fjord, Norway)

Many shorebirds nest in loose groups or colonies to form a ‘defensive umbrella’ around their nest. The same may apply to Ruddy Turnstones that often place their nests close to Arctic Skua nests, which can fiercely defend their nest. However, Turnstones are also know for robbing the nests of other species such as gulls.

Thomas Lameris tracking

This project will study these colonies of Ruddy Turnstones and Arctic Skuas to find out who exactly benefits the most from nesting together.

The committee members are delighted to support this project, looking forward to the findings, which we believe will add new knowledge about wader nesting success.

The IWSG Small Grant Committee,Yahkat Barshep, Vojtěch Kubelka, Birgita Hansen, Nils Warnock and Jannik Hansen

Previous winners

2021

  • Shariful Islam: Comparison of shorebirds prey between coastal mudflats and inland freshwater habitats in Bangladesh

2020

  • Hari Basnet: Breeding Biology of Wood Snipe Gallinago nemoricola in Lamtang National Park, Nepal
  • Sandra Giner & Virginia Sanz: Identification of potential WHSRN sites for the protection of breeding areas of two plovers of conservation concern (C. wilsonia and C. nivosus) in Margarita Island, Venezuela

2019

  • Emmanuel Nii Attram Taye: Breeding ecology and foraging behaviour of Black-winged stilts in Ghana.

2018

  • Thomas Mondain-Monval: Identifying the wintering grounds of Common Sandpipers in the UK using stable isotope analysis.
  • Christian Höfs and Tim van der Meer: Dotterel distribution and site faithfulness in Ammanäs, Sweden.

2017

  • Christoph Himmel: Censusing waders along Southern Azerbaijan coast on the flyway of, for instance, the Central Asian population of Black-tailed Godwits
  • Ralitsa Georgieva: Research of distribution, population size and main treats of breeding waders along Albania seacoast wetlands
  • Sriman Delip Kumar Das: A shorebird expedition to unexplored mudflats of the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna delta, an important bird and biodiversity area, Bangladesh

2016

  • Biol. Glenda Hevia and Dr. Verónica D’Amico: A valuation of the impact of human activities on physiological parameters of Two-Banded Plovers (Charadrius falklandicus) breeding at beaches in Northern Patagonia, Argentina.

Details on the previous recipients of the IWSG Small Grants