Biocultural Community Engagement Funding

Mahalo for your interest. The 2019 round of Kūlana Noiʻi Award applications is now closed.

Call for Proposals (2019)

Across Hawaiʻi, there is a great need for community-based research that meets the needs of local resource managers. Many students are interested in conducting useful and impactful research to support those stewarding our lands and seas. Yet, it is rare for resource stewards and students to connect on research in significant ways, and perhaps even rarer that funding is available for students to meaningfully engage with the community. This gap often leads to research disjointed from the places and people the research is intended to assist.

The Biocultural Initiative of the Pacific at UH Mānoa is a knowledge center and network linking scholars, instructors and students who share the common goal of thinking holistically to enhance understanding of biocultural systems. In partnership with Kamehameha Schools and Kuaʻāina ʻUlu ʻAuamo (KUA), we are calling for applications for the 2019 Kūlana Noiʻi Award: Biocultural Community Engagement Funding.  The goal of this award is to institutionalize community-based research by providing support for undergraduate or graduate students to engage with the community and/or resource managers in Hawaiʻi to foster meaningful relationships for effective research and ‘āina (land and sea) management. Awards will be approximately $500-$1000 per project.