Early Career Accelerator Stipend

COBRA’s mission is to accelerate the research on the structure, function, resilience, and ecosystem services of the crustal ocean biosphere to inform decision making and to train the next generation of leaders in ocean exploration, science, and policy. In pursuit of this mission, we award small accelerator stipends for early career participants to accelerate their training. Accelerator stipends can be used for any type of training activity, such as – but not limited to – learning a new skill or getting a new experience, visiting a lab to learn a new method or analyze samples, going to sea, or attending a professional society conference or policy-maker meeting. These stipends are for early career members of the community – including senior graduate students, postdocs, junior faculty, or junior professionals – that would like to gain new skills and experiences that can be applied to COBRA themes. These training opportunities are expected to establish direct linkages among individuals, which are intended to result in a more well-connected community and the development of future COBRA researchers and leaders.

We anticipate ~10 awards of US$2,500 in 2025 (Year 4 of COBRA). This stipend funding is available to individuals sponsored in both US institutions and abroad. For individuals not based at a US institution, the training opportunity must be tied to a US-based organization or activity. COBRA must consider appropriate balance in funding to reflect that the funding is US-based.

The application form will ask for the following mandatory information:

• Name and contact information
• Current institution, country of institution, and career stage
• Name of supervisor, if applicable
• Anticipated start and end dates of the proposed activities
• Your background in oceanography, marine science, ocean engineering, marine policy, or related field (200 words maximum)
• Your intended training activity and describe how it will advance your career direction or opportunities (300 words maximum)
• How your intended training activity aligns with COBRA themes and mission, i.e. how the training could contribute to advancing research on the structure, function, resilience, and ecosystem services of the crustal ocean biosphere to inform decision making while training the next generation of leaders in ocean exploration, science, and policy (200 words maximum)
• How you and/or your training opportunity is tied to a US-based organization or activity (e.g., you are based at a US institution, your training opportunity or collaborators are hosted by a US-based organization or activity) (200 words maximum)
• The use of funds and approximate costs (200 words maximum)
• A 2-page PDF document with applicant’s current resumé or curriculum vitae including:
  • Education background
  • Professional affiliations
  • Awards or honors
  • Service to or participation in scientific, education, mentoring or policy activities
  • Up to 5 relevant publications or other types of professional activities
  • Note: if you have not created a 2-page CV before, refer to this guidance from COBRA

The application form will also ask for the following voluntary information:

1. How do you currently describe your gender identity?
2. How do you describe your race and/or ethnicity?
3. What is your country of citizenship?
4. What is your current country of residence?
5. Can we have your permission to use the demographic information that you voluntarily provided above to help connect you with programs and opportunities that we are aware of? This is a service that COBRA would like to be able to provide to early career researchers, to help you expand your network and benefit from opportunities of COBRA partners.

Why do we ask for this information? Applicants are asked to provide some personal identity information to help COBRA to understand the demographics of the applicant pool to assess if our efforts to recruit diverse audiences are effective. We also request this information to help connect early career researchers with opportunities of our partners. COBRA strives to increase representation of diverse genders, races and ethnicities, and nations in deep-sea research. Provision of this demographic information is voluntary, and the information will not be used in the decision-making process. Aggregated and anonymized demographic data may also be used in COBRA’s annual reports.

Eligibility Criteria:

A successful application will meet the following criteria:

• Have a background in oceanography, marine science, ocean engineering, marine policy, or related field
• Be a graduate student, postdoctoral scientist/researcher, untenured faculty, or an early career employee of a government, NGO, or industry with sufficient experience to benefit from the training opportunity
• Provide compelling reasons that the training will accelerate the applicant’s career opportunities
• Provide compelling rationale for how the training could contribute to advancing research on the structure, function, resilience, and ecosystem services of the crustal ocean biosphere to inform decision making while training the next generation of leaders in ocean exploration, science, and policy
• Provide a clear statement on how you and/or your training opportunity is tied to a US-based organization or activity
• Provide a clear statement on the use of stipend funds

Applications are accepted on a rolling basis, there is no deadline to apply. We anticipate making decisions on funding within 3 months following submission, with successfully proposed activities starting between 1-10 months following notification. The COBRA Co-Investigator leadership team (Orcutt, Huber, Wheat, Rotjan, and Fisher) will make selections based on responses to the eligibility criteria described above.

A training stipend of $2,500 will be distributed in two lump sums via direct transfer to the selected participant. One sum will be awarded at the start of the training, and the second six months later after receiving a brief summary of the training opportunity outcomes. If awarded, funds will be offered as either a bank account or PayPal transfer after submission of US Internal Revenue Service Forms W9 or W8, as appropriate depending on taxpayer status, to COBRA’s Managing Director. The COBRA Managing Director and other COBRA Co-Investigators on the team are not eligible for additional compensation.

2024

Victoria Assad, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Ph.D. Student. Training with Dr. Allen Andrews in New Caledonia on otolith analysis for mesopelagic fishes and deep-sea fishes. Skill set will be applied to life history on the dominant fish in the CCZ.

Isabel Baker, Johns Hopkins University Postdoctoral Researcher. Training on the SIMS instrument in the Stable Isotope Biogeochemistry Lab at Washington University in St. Louis to measure the sulfur isotope composition of pyrites from a range of already-collected environmental samples—including from deep sea methane seeps—to improve our understanding of the how potential disturbances to seafloor microbial ecosystem surfaces may be recognized in the geochemical record.

Katharine Bigham, University of Washington Postdoctoral Researcher. Training on Artificial Intelligence object detectors for seafloor marine benthic imagery at the Marine Imaging Workshop (MIW) and with collaborators at MBARI.

Ramesh Chatragadda, National Institute of Oceanography, Goa Early Career Researcher. Training with Dr. Dahiana Arcila (Scripps Institution of Oceanography) in environmental DNA metabarcoding, metagenomic sequencing techniques, and bioinformatics used in studying the genetic diversity and evolution of deep-sea zooplankton and fish.

Gabrielle Ellis, University of Hawaii at Manoa Ph.D. Student. Participating in the Deep Sea Biology Society Conference and presenting the temporal variability in the abyssal benthic boundary layer zooplankton community.

Amanda Kahn, Moss Landing Marine Laboratories and San Jose State University Junior Faculty. Participating in the Cleft Segment expedition on the Juan de Fuca ridge to assess megafaunal community composition from several sites of hydrothermal brine discharge and gain training in deep-sea expedition leadership.

Judy Malas, University of Illinois Chicago Ph.D. Student. Participating in training course on Molecular Evolution at the Marine Biological Laboratory to learn new advanced genomic skill set to understand genetic adaptation of microbes to the deep sea.

Luke McCartin, Lehigh University Postdoctoral Researcher. Participating in the Deep Sea Biology Society Conference and presenting an eDNA strategy for surveying the biodiversity of deep-sea corals.

Man Yin Tsang, University of Washington Postdoctoral Researcher. Training at TRIUMF, Canada’s particle accelerator center at the University of British Columbia, to develop a protocol for ESR dating on cold-seep barite, to expand the range of dating techniques used by oceanographers to understand seafloor processes and their impact on seafloor organisms.

Loïc Van Audenhaege, National Oceanography Centre Postdoctoral Researcher. Training on underwater imaging and the use of Artificial Intelligence at the Marine Imaging Workshop (MIW).

2023

Steven Auscavitch, Boston University Postdoctoral Researcher. Training at NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center to learn next generation molecular skillsets and create a genetic reference library of deep-sea corals from recent ocean exploration cruises in the central Pacific Ocean.

• Watch the COBRA webinar by Steve and Beatriz about their work supported by the Accelerator Stipend!

For questions regarding the general scope of this call and proposal submission, please contact: cobra@bigelow.org.