Workshops

Details and Application Guidelines for Workshops Proposals

SESYNC Workshops are single meetings with up to 40 participants to focus on a broad topic or a set of related topics, summarizing/synthesizing the state of the art, identifying future directions, or exploring novel ideas. Organizers (1 or 2 leads) identify up to half of the participants with the remaining participant slots filled through open application. SESYNC will provide support (travel, lodging, and meals) for Workshop attendees.

For workshops, SESYNC funding provides:

• facilities for meeting, including technological support;
• computational support for data acquisition and synthesis; and
• the opportunity to engage with post-doctoral scholars and sabbatical fellows at both SESYNC headquarters in Annapolis, MD or at our research affiliates, Resources for the Future, in Washington, D.C.

Workshop applications will be ranked with regard to their:

• novelty, creativity, and/or urgency of the proposed workshop within the context of SESYNC’s mission;
• feasibility to produce meaningful advancements, including identifying distinct and achievable goals and showing ability to access appropriate resources;
• qualifications and disciplinary diversity of participants;
• If successful, produce meaningful synthetic research or advance the process of synthesis;
• inclusion of diversity to broaden the participation of underrepresented groups with respect to gender, ethnicity, disability and geographic location;
• an explanation of why SESYNC is the most appropriate way to support

Components of a Workshop Application

Include the following using single spacing, 12-pt type fonts, and 1 inch margins.

Cover sheet (1 page)

• Descriptive Title of proposed workshop (“Workshop: ….”)
• Short Title (25 characters max)
• Name and contact information for up to two PIs
• Project Summary (250 words) - appropriate for the public; posted on the SESYNC web site
• Keywords (up to 5 keywords different from those used in the title)
• Proposed start and end dates; number and duration of meetings as well as the estimated number of participants
• Potential conflicts of interest with members of the SESYNC External Advisory Board or Leadership

Main body (4 pages max including references)

• Description of the workshop topic, why it is important to advancing in socio-environmental synthesis research, and novelty or urgency.
• Why SESYNC is the most appropriate place to hold the workshop. Note that the most competitive proposals will be for workshops that capitalize on SESYNC’s scientific community in residence, its cyberinfrastructure and technical resources, or its partners locally. SESYNC will not generally fund workshops in which the leads or the majority of named participants are engaged in a significant ongoing collaboration.
• Metrics of success - describe metrics that are the most appropriate for evaluating the success of the proposed project (e.g., papers, policy-directed efforts, databases, models, development of new resources, grant proposal, etc).

Potential Participants and goals for open slots (1 page)

• Include a table with 3 columns, as follows: first column: names; second column: affiliations (including departments); third column: areas of expertise most relevant for the proposed project. Indicate those that are confirmed.
• List characteristics of potential participants that should be invited for open slots. Include current SESYNC post-docs and sabbatical fellows if appropriate.
• Diversity Statement - Include a paragraph describing the aspects of diversity in your participant list. Diversity is considered in all its aspects, social and scientific, including gender, ethnicity, scientific field, disability status, career stage, geography and type of home institution.

Other Information (1 page)

• Anticipated cyber-infrastructure needs - Briefly describe any anticipated needs for CI support that are important to the success of the proposed project, including support for coding, high performance computing, data aggregation and fusion, visualization, and development and maintenance of public databases.
• Work plan with budgetary needs: this is not in dollars, but do provide: 1) numbers of trips by year to SESYNC (broken down by number of US domestic and international participants and days of local support) and 2) other anticipated support. SESYNC provides neither honoraria nor stipends for workshop leaders or participants.

Short CV of the PIs (2 pages for each)

Do not include talks, society memberships, or papers in preparation.

Application and Submission Process

Applications will be accepted in digital format only, with all elements combined into a single pdf file. Applications can be submitted at any time but will be reviewed quarterly. SESYNC’s External Advisory Board, the Leadership, and experts drawn from the external community will evaluate proposals. Email complete application as one pdf to: