Michelle Panuccio Research Grant

Michelle Panuccio Research Grant

Status: ACTIVE
Funder: Raptor Research Foundation
Amount: Up to €3,500
Last Updated: June 22, 2025

Summary

The Michele Panuccio Memorial Grant offers financial assistance for field research focused on raptor migration and conservation in Europe, specifically for researchers under 35 years old. Established in 2021 to honor ornithologist Michele Panuccio, the grant provides up to $3,500 and waived publication fees in the Journal of Raptor Research. The recipient must be the primary author, ensuring their work reflects the purpose of this grant.

Overview

The Michele Panuccio Memorial Grant provides financial support for field research on raptor migration and conservation in the European region by young researchers (no more than 35 years old). The Fund was established by his parents in 2021 in memory of the Italian ornithologist and ecologist Michele Panuccio (1976-2019). Amount: up to $3,500 plus waived page charges. The waived page charges allow the recipient to publish their research in the Journal of Raptor Research. The recipient must be the primary author and the paper must reflect what the award was for. About Michele Michele Panuccio was a versatile and complete field naturalist, but, above all, an ornithologist. He devoted most of his life to the study of raptor migration, starting as a volunteer at the Strait of Messina in 1997. In subsequent years he took a leading role in various monitoring projects, especially on islands along the Italian-Tunisian flyway. He completed his doctorate on trans-Mediterranean raptor migration at the University of Pavia in 2012. Thanks to his contagious passion, he involved many young ornithologists in studies from the Calabrian Apennines in Italy to Greece and Turkey. He collaborated on field studies in Georgia, Armenia, Iran, and Thailand. His rigorous and exhaustive observations were meticulously analyzed and published in dozens of scientific papers. Michele will be remembered for the discovery of the migration strategy of the Greek Short-toed Snake Eagles, which avoid crossing the Aegean Sea by concentrating on the slopes of Mount Olympus en route to the Bosphorus. This strategy is like that followed by Italian conspecifics, which avoid the Channel of Sicily by crossing the Mediterranean at the Strait of Gibraltar. In his final years, using both direct visual observation and radar monitoring, he established a standardized monitoring program at the Strait of Messina – one of the most important European migration bottlenecks.

Eligibility

You can learn more about this opportunity by visiting the funder's website. No more than 35 years old.