2022 TCD Innovation Award Deadline is November 14, 2023

The Schmink Innovation Award seeks to ensure the long-term impact of the Tropical Conservation and Development (TCD) Program around the world by catalyzing new ideas and innovative approaches and by enabling shared learning throughout the tropics. This new TCD award is funded by an endowment that honors Dr. Marianne Schmink for her extraordinary contributions to conservation and development and her long-term leadership of the TCD Program. Award winners will receive up to $1,200 to implement their ideas.

The goal of the Schmink Innovation Award is to support the development and application of innovative approaches and programs that address human well-being, economic development, and biodiversity conservation of tropical and subtropical regions. TCD defines innovation as a novel approach, idea, or practice that holds promise to be a more effective way of achieving results. This innovative approach is not “business as usual” nor is it innovative simply because it is “new”. Rather, it is innovative because it tackles complex conservation and development problems in fundamentally different ways than have been tried before. We envision the Schmink Innovation Award as a mechanism to empower the creative process and application of innovative approaches to advancing tropical conservation and development.

We are particularly interested in supporting innovations that enable shared learning. Schmink Innovation Awards are expected to complement TCD’s on-going successful campus and field-based activities. Successful proposals may include, but are not limited to, the following activities:

• New initiatives to build capacity and/or kick off collaborative research
• Networking activities between TCD alumni, students, and partners to exchange ideas and instill further collaboration
• Extensions or applications of research to address concrete practical and policy challenges

For complete information please visit the TCD Innovation Award page.