The Hugh Cary Gilson Award

Hugh Cary Gilson was the Director of FBA between 1946-73. Each year an award is made in his memory to assist a Member with a piece of original freshwater research (biological or limnological) in accordance with the FBA’s aims as stated in its Articles of Association.

For 2009 and beyond the award value has been increased to £4000.00.

Application is open to all Members and staff (full and part-time) of the FBA. Members include Corporate, Individual, Student, Life or Honorary. The only stipulation is that membership should have been active in the previous calendar year. For the 2010 award Members should have joined in, or before, 2009. (Membership Information)

The award is advertised in FBA's internal publications and in external publications of relevance. Its timescales and nature are a permanent feature of the FBA website, with applicants invited to submit their expositions (email: info@fba.org.uk) between mid-January and mid-February (precise dates announced each year). For the 2010 award, please submit your application between 16 January and 16 February 2010. The award is announced in early April and paid in full at the beginning of the financial year (April).

Terms and Conditions

Applicants are required to submit an exposition of no more than 1000 words, to include:

Applicant details: name, FBA membership no., contact details (including email), and institution (if different to contact details).
The proposed work: title, brief summary of the purpose to which the funding will be put (50 word max.), where the work will be carried out, outline of the proposed work (including, as appropriate, the context, rationale, aims and objectives, work plan/approach, timetable, references), and anticipated outcomes.
Personnel: principal investigator/researcher, co-workers, and biographies of key workers.
Budget: total funds applied for as well as a breakdown of how the money will be spent, and details of any funding from other sources.

Applicants should also confirm that the proposed work complies with all legal requirements.

Please note that the FBA's Guidelines on Good Practice in Research apply to all FBA grants and awards. A copy can be downloaded below.

» FBA Guidelines on Good Practice in Research – PDF-File, 36.9 KB

Judging criteria

The successful application should meet all of the following criteria:

The proposed work should be consistent with the Mission and Vision of the FBA.
The proposed work embraces a clear testable hypothesis or relates directly to a larger ongoing or recent research project.
The work is identifiable as being relevant to freshwater biology.
The proposed approach is scientifically sound.
The proposed approach has a reasonable chance of succeeding.
The proposed work is reasonably and objectively costed.

(Note: Where the work forms part of a larger project, supplementing existing resources, the criteria apply to the part to be funded by the FBA.)

The FBA encourages novel and exciting applications, which support promising or proven talent.

Preference may be given to applications:

that fall outside the scope of other funding sources; and/or
where the proposed work uses FBA research facilities, and/or exploits the historic databases and collections of the FBA, and/or helps to deliver the Association's objectives.

Previous Winners:

In 2009 the award was made to Suzanne McGowan of the University of Nottingham, for her proposal entitled "Comparing limnological and palaeolimnological records at Windermere". The award will fund the collection, dating and pigment analysis of sediment cores from the North and South basins of Windermere, to compare with the phytoplankton monitoring records collected since 1945 by the FBA the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH Lancaster).

In 2008 the award was made to Jorge Salgado of the Environmental Change Research Centre, University College London in conjunction with the Natural History Museum, London. The Gilson award will fund two field expeditions to the Upper Lough Erne system in Northern Ireland, to undertake contemporary surveys of macrophytes, chironomids and bryozoans as well as taking sediment cores for paleolimnological analysis. The work will form part of Jorge’s PhD project, which aims to characterise the historical ecology of shallow lakes that vary in trophic status by gathering palaeo-data for lakes of the Upper Lough Erne system. Download the report below:

» HCG Award 08 – PDF-File, 118.5 KB

The 2007 award was made to Dr Brian Moss of the University of Liverpool and helped towards the funding of a student over the summer period to investigate “Climatic Change and the Metabolic Balance of Shallow Fresh Waters”. Download the report below:

» HCG Award 07 – PDF-File, 15.6 KB

In 2006 the award was made to Vasilias Lucas of the University of Durham and was used to help finance a field trip to the Gambia. Download the report below:

» HCG Award 06 – PDF-File, 138.7 KB

In 2005 the award was made to Dr Lydia King of the University of Lancaster and was used to develop knowledge of littoral-pelagic coupling in a lake carbon cycle as part of a collaborative project with the University of Jyväskylä and Queen Mary University London. Fieldwork was undertaken in Finland. Download the report below:

» HCG Award 05 – PDF-File, 1.5 MB

In 2004 the award was made to Beth Okamura and Samantha Hill of the University of Reading, to support work on the rare bryozoan Lophopus crystallinus. Download the report below:

» HCG Award 04 – PDF-File, 833.1 KB

In 2003 the award was made to Min-Ho Jang from South Korea, to extend his work on lampreys with Martyn Lucas at the University of Durham. Download the report below:

» HCG Award 03 – PDF-File, 108.6 KB

In 2002 the award was made to María de los Ángeles González Sagrario – a PhD student from the Universidad Nacional del Comahue in Argentina. María's PhD has been on the ecological role of submerged macrophytes in shallow Pampasic lakes. The Hugh Cary Gilson Memorial Award enabled her to complete part of her project which had been jeopordised by the financial collapse of the Argentinian currency, this being a supervised term of six months to be carried out at the Centre for Limnology in the Netherlands and the National Environmental Research Institute in Denmark. Download the report below.

» HCG Award 02 – PDF-File, 117.1 KB

In 2001 the very first award was made to Dr Mike Dobson from Environmental and Geographical Sciences at Manchester Metropolitan University. In collaboration with Professor J.M. Mathooko, Department of Zoology at Egerton University, Kenya, Mike investigated whether invertebrate shredder detritivores were a significant component of tropical streams. Download the report below:

» HCG Award 01 – PDF-File, 86.1 KB