The Ernst Mayr Travel Grants in Animal Systematics

The Ernst Mayr Travel Grants in Animal Systematics

Status: ACTIVE
Funder: Harvard University
Amount: Up to US $2,500
Last Updated: August 04, 2025

Summary

The Ernst Mayr Travel Grants at Harvard University's Museum of Comparative Zoology support research in animal systematics, focusing on neglected taxa with poorly described species. These grants aim to facilitate visits to museums for studying type specimens, essential for accurate identification. Open to all researchers, the funds cover travel, lodging, and research supplies. Preference is given to studies utilizing MCZ collections, particularly those examining specimens from their countries of origin.

Overview

The Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ) at Harvard University periodically awards travel grants for research in animal systematics, known as the Ernst Mayr Grants. The principal objective of these grants is to stimulate taxonomic work on neglected taxa. These include taxa with numerous poorly described species, genera and families known to have many undescribed species in institutional collections, taxa for which it is unknown what proportion of the nominal species are synonyms and difficult genera without keys. The study of type specimens and their correct identification is the greatest need in poorly known taxa. This typically requires visits to other museums, which is what the Ernst Mayr Grants program tries to facilitate.

Eligibility

You can learn more about this opportunity by visiting the funder's website. This grant is open to all.Funds can be spent on things like:travellodging, and meals for up to a few weeks while conducting research at the museum(s)reasonable services purchased from the host institution and research supplies

Ineligibility

It is not the aim of these grants to support largely phylogenetic studies of taxa in which the species are reasonably well known, or to support biogeographic studies.