Travel Grants to the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University

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. 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. 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. Preference is given to studies that use the MCZ's collections, although applications to work at other museums will be considered. There is enough demand for this support for taxonomic work to make it impossible to also support phylogenetic and other evolutionary studies from the Ernst Mayr Grants.

Grant Amount:

Typical expenses that may be paid from these grants include travel, lodging, 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. Awards average about $1,000 each and may not exceed $1,500. Recipients will receive a check from the Bank of America, sent by FedEx. Alternatively, checks can be picked up at the Museum of Comparative Zoology.  

Grantee's Obligations:

Each grantee is required to submit a written report summarizing the scientific accomplishments achieved with the award within one month of travel completion.

Abut the MCZ:

The Museum of Comparative Zoology, full name "The Louis Agassiz Museum of Comparative Zoology", often abbreviated simply to "MCZ", is the zoology museum located on the grounds of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is one of three natural history research museums at Harvard whose public face is the Harvard Museum of Natural History. Harvard MCZ's collections consist of some 21 million specimens, of which several thousand are on rotating display at the public museum. The current director of the Museum of Comparative Zoology is James Hanken, the Louis Agassiz Professor of Zoology at Harvard University.

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