Rolex Awards for Enterprise (2014)

: 31 May 2013 | Type: scholarship

The Rolex Awards for Enterprise were created to foster a spirit of enterprise and advance human knowledge and well-being. They support pioneering work in five areas:

1. • science and health
2. • applied technology
3. • exploration and discovery
4. • the environment
5. • cultural heritage

Winners are innovators who typically work outside the mainstream and often have limited access to traditional funding. Rather than reward past achievements, the Rolex Awards provide financial assistance and recognition

to individuals embarking on new ventures or carrying out ongoing projects. Grants of 100,000 Swiss francs are awarded to Laureates and 50,000 Swiss francs to Young Laureates. All winners also receive a Rolex chronometer.

The grants must be used to complete projects. A cycle of awards devoted to Young Laureates was introduced in 2009 to encourage the next generation of leaders.

 

Eligibility Criteria

1. All candidates must be between 18 and 30 years old by December 31, 2014.
2. Pre-applications for the 2014 Rolex Awards for Enterprise may be submitted by individuals only. No institutional or collective pre- applications are allowed. If a project represents the efforts of several individuals, one person must represent the group and sign the pre- application form. Should such a group effort be chosen, the Rolex Award will be presented to the individual representative. Rolex SA will have no obligation to any other members of the group.
3. No pre-applications on behalf of another person will be accepted. Pre-applicants must submit their own ideas and proposals.
4. Pre-applications cannot be submitted by Rolex employees; Rolex agents and retailers and their employees; employees of advertising, public relations and any other agencies acting for Rolex; members of the immediate families of any of the above; any other person closely connected with Rolex SA. Former Rolex Awards and Young Laureates Programme Jury Members, Laureates, Associate Laureates and Young Laureates are also excluded.
5. The Rolex Awards for Enterprise invites pre-applications for projects in the following areas: science and health; applied technology; exploration and discovery; the environment; and cultural heritage. Innovative ideas outside these areas will also be considered.
6. Projects must improve the quality of life on the planet, expand knowledge of our world or contribute to the betterment of humankind. 
7. Projects must be envisaged for the future or completed only in part. Completed work, or projects that will be finished when the awards are announced late in 2014, cannot be considered.

 

Selection Process

Winners are chosen by a Jury of international experts who themselves embody the spirit of enterprise that the Awards seek to promote. The Jury is international, interdisciplinary and independent. A new panel is convened for each series of Awards, which are presented every two years.

 

Rolex receives as many as 3,000 applications from more than 150 countries for each series. The Awards are open to individuals of any nationality or background. The applications are analysed by a team of scientific researchers before being presented to the Jury.

 

Projects are judged on their feasibility, originality, potential for sustained impact and, above all, on the candidates’ spirit of enterprise. Applicants must show how they will use a Rolex Award to leverage the impact of their projects, and how, through initiative and ingenuity, they will benefit mankind.

For more information visit the official website

The Rolex Awards for Enterprise were created to foster a spirit of enterprise and advance human knowledge and well-being.

CALL FOR PROPOSAL :RESEARCH GRANT FOR STUDENTS

 Hariyo Ban Program is a 5 year, USAID funded initiative that aims to reduce adverse impacts of climate change and threats to biodiversity in Nepal. It works in the fields of biodiversity conservation, payments for environmental services (particularly REDD+), and adaptation to climate change. Cross cutting issues are livelihoods, governance, and gender and social inclusion.

WWF Nepal announces the opening of a Student research grant fund to support Bachelors and Masters level students for the partial fulfillment of their dissertation in subjects related to Hariyo Ban’s thematic areas as specified above across its working landscapes in Nepal.

Final year students are requested to submit electronic copies of their proposals to smallgrants@wwfnepal.org .

Deadline:  31 March 2013

Source:http://wapnepal.com/scholarship/call-for-proposals-for-hariyo-ban-students-research-grant?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=facebook

Grant Application Guide     Proposal Format View detail in website of WWF Nepal (WWF Nepal Opportunities)

CALL FOR PROPOSAL :RESEARCH GRANT FOR STUDENTS

 Hariyo Ban Program is a 5 year, USAID funded initiative that aims to reduce adverse impacts of climate change and threats to biodiversity in Nepal. It works in the fields of biodiversity conservation, payments for environmental services (particularly REDD+), and adaptation to climate change. Cross cutting issues are livelihoods, governance, and gender and social inclusion.

WWF Nepal announces the opening of a Student research grant fund to support Bachelors and Masters level students for the partial fulfillment of their dissertation in subjects related to Hariyo Ban’s thematic areas as specified above across its working landscapes in Nepal.

Final year students are requested to submit electronic copies of their proposals to smallgrants@wwfnepal.org .

Deadline:  31 March 2013

Source:http://wapnepal.com/scholarship/call-for-proposals-for-hariyo-ban-students-research-grant?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=facebook

Grant Application Guide     Proposal Format View detail in website of WWF Nepal (WWF Nepal Opportunities)

In Search of Hardier Corn

By DAVID KESMODEL

The agriculture industry is trying to toughen up corn.

With the Farm Belt recovering from one of the worst summers of drought in decades, the companies that supply corn seeds are rolling out new strains that can survive with less water. It's a wide-ranging, big-budget battle covering a lot of fronts, from crossbreeding crops to tinkering with the plants' genes.

There is no magic bullet, researchers warn. But even incremental gains could have big results, given the size and importance of the corn crop.

Advances that produce just a 1% gain in corn yield from year to year can have "a huge economic impact," says David Lightfoot, a geneticist at Southern Illinois University. "It's the crop that's grown in some of the driest areas of the Midwest, and it's the one where progress is going to have the biggest payoff."

Stalking the Perfect Ear

The U.S. is the world's biggest producer and exporter of corn, generating a crop valued at $76.5 billion in 2011, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Corn also touches many parts of the economy—serving as the basis for food sweeteners, livestock feed and ethanol fuel—and poor harvests can have far-reaching repercussions.

For years, Monsanto Co., DuPont Co. and Syngenta AG have used conventional breeding techniques and biotechnology to create corn that is hardier overall, including hybrids that hold up better when water is scarce. Their efforts—as well as improved farming practices—have reduced drought-related losses in yield for the U.S. corn crop by about 1% a year in recent decades, according to a study published in 2010 by Iowa State University researchers.

But recently the ag giants began introducing corn varieties that are specifically designed to endure drought.

Syngenta has offered a limited commercial launch of a drought-tolerant corn called Agrisure Artesian over the past two years and plans an expanded offering for next year's planting. The seed can increase yields by as much as 15% over other hybrid corns in "a moderate to severe drought," says Wayne Fithian, a Syngenta product manager who oversees drought-tolerant corn.

DuPont's Optimum AQUAmax hit the market last year and was planted on about two million acres in the Corn Belt in 2012. DuPont's agricultural arm, DuPont Pioneer, says harvest data show that in drought conditions, the corn has yields about 8% higher than leading competing hybrids.

Several farmers who planted drought-tolerant varieties this year say they are satisfied with the results. In Elgin, Neb., Philip Starman says he plans to use Optimum AQUAmax again next year after testing it for several years. The corn appeared to endure better in the drought than his other corn. "It seems like it takes a lot more stress, it's a lot more tolerant," the 54-year-old says. "Put it this way: It's probably the last to die."

Tinkering With Genes

Both the DuPont Pioneer and Syngenta seeds were created with advanced versions of traditional breeding techniques. Now Monsanto is preparing to take things further with DroughtGard, the first corn genetically engineered for drought tolerance.

This year, about 250 farmers in Plains states planted the corn in trials, and the seed is due to hit the market in 2013. Officials at Monsanto, which developed the seed with Germany's BASF, say they are encouraged by the performance. Preliminary trial data, they say, show DroughtGard had yields about five bushels per acre higher than a competitor's drought-tolerant hybrid in side-by-side comparisons.

Several years ago, when Monsanto first began talking publicly about its drought technology, company officials predicted it might improve corn yields by 6% to 10% over other hybrids. But a Monsanto spokeswoman says the company no longer makes such broad projections.

If the seed delivers good results, it could be a big step forward for the industry. Engineering corn that resists drought has proved a bigger challenge than, say, creating plants that can stand up to weeds or insects. A big part of the problem is that drought resistance involves many parts of the plant—which means thousands of genes need to be in the mix.

Some critics—and Monsanto's competitors—think that the technology just isn't ready yet and that for now the best answer lies in traditional breeding. Syngenta officials say they don't plan to introduce a biotech drought-tolerant corn until sometime after 2015, while DuPont Pioneer doesn't plan to roll one out until next decade.

"We have all been quite humbled in realizing how complex this is," says Jeff Schussler, a senior research manager at DuPont Pioneer.

Mr. Kesmodel is an assistant news editor in The Wall Street Journal's Chicago bureau. He can be reached at david.kesmodel@wsj.com.

                    Informal organization makes change

 

                                         

                                         

                                                            Photo: By Keshav Chandra Bagale

                                         Some of the member discussing for the further plan

Co-operative, boon to eradicate poverty, is popular among the countryside community of Nepal. Basically rural people exercise cooperative as informal organization although government have formulated rules and regulation to make it as formal organization. In each and every villages of Nepal agro-cooperatives, which is involved in agriculture related sector, have been established under the aid of governmental and various non-governmental sector. There is a popular slogan among the stakeholder and grass root people “Cooperatives in Villages, Employment at Every Household”. These cooperatives are run as informal mutual aid groups and rotating savings and credit associations. They are a key component of women and marginalized group empowerment through agricultural activities. They help small landholder farmers to negotiate better terms in contact farming and lower prices for agricultural inputs. Through this type of organization in context of Nepal smallholders can achieve sustainable livelihoods, improve food security in their community and also can play a marked role in catching the increasing demand for food on local level.

Aid for subsistence farming

Dal Bahadur Gurung, an indigenous and ethnic group member of Shardanagar VDC of Chitwan district of Nepal, is a small landholder having 0.33 hector of land which is not termed as irrigated land literally. There is no any irrigation cannel near his farm. In his locality there are about 28 other people who are like him. Under some technical aid and management training by SECARD Nepal (a non-governmental organization) and District Development Office (DADO) of Chitwan district they have constructed artesian boring under the financial aid of DADO. Now they are able to give life to their crop and thus they have boosted their living standard. Before this cooperative Gurung’s family should have to engage with other off farm activities to sustain. But the condition has been reversed. Now he can at least run his family quite easier than before.

Discussion forum and sharing:

Ranamaya B.K (a so called low caste women), member of Dharmodaya cooperative, collect some part of her income in monthly basis in the fund of cooperative. Through this fund she can get credit in low interest (i.e. 1.5% per month).Before this she used to pay 2.5-3% per month to money lender. She has three goats in her house along with some poultry. These goats have been brought by taking loan from cooperative.

Twice a month all members gather in a ‘Chautari’(a place where stone are paved near banyan tree) to discuss method of cropping, fertilizer application, paste and disease and their  control measures, irrigation methods and so on. In coordination with DADO various agricultural trainings are being conducted. Government of Nepal provide subsidy in fertilizer and seed to poor farmers by the channel of cooperatives.

Path to success

A cooperative in rural areas is key part in minimizing poverty and inequality, import substitution, export promotion, employment generation and promotion of social justice harmony. This farm organization plays an important role to seek the market for marginalized and small farmers. Individually these farmers produce a relatively few product which is insufficient for market. Thus cooperative collects their products and collectively sent them for market. In Nepalese contest top 5% of owners control about 40% of cultivated land while the bottom 60% control about 20% and cooperative can boost up living standard of these 60% people.