2026 Wilson Ornithological Society Research Grants (Closed Cycle)

2026 Wilson Ornithological Society Research Grants (Closed Cycle)

The Wilson Ornithological Society (WOS) 2026 Research Grants application period is closed. The official Research Grants page says to check back around the end of 2026 for information about the next application window. It does not announce an exact next-cycle deadline, so this page is an archive of the 2026 opportunity rather than an open call. The recorded deadline for that cycle was February 1, 2026 at midnight EST.

This distinction matters for anyone finding the program through a search engine. The Wilson Ornithological Society still maintains the grant information and the 2026 guidelines, but the linked Google Form is no longer accepting submissions. Use the official research-grants page for future updates: https://wilsonsociety.org/awards/research-grants/. Do not treat the archived deadline or the old form as an invitation to submit a late application.

At a glance

The Society describes these awards as four distinct categories. Their purposes and award sizes differ, so an applicant should read the category descriptions rather than assume that one budget or eligibility rule applies to every grant. The 2026 application allowed one submission to be considered for all categories for which the applicant was eligible, with the budget justification explaining how the project could be adapted to different funding amounts.

Grant categories and award amounts

Louis Agassiz Fuertes Grants

The Fuertes Grant is available to all ornithologists for any avian research. The Society says that graduate students and young professionals are preferred, and that up to two awards of $5,000 are given annually. A proposal in this category should make a strong case for the scientific question, the need for the requested costs, and the applicant’s ability to complete the work. The award is the largest of the four listed categories, but the published amount is still a focused research grant rather than a substitute for a full project budget.

Wilson Ornithological Society Research Grants

The general WOS Research Grants category supports any area of ornithology, with budgets considered up to $3,000. The Society encourages applicants to request less than the maximum when that better matches the work. Two awards are designated for research by Masters students and two for research by undergraduate students. This makes the category useful for a defined field season, a laboratory analysis, a modest equipment purchase, or another discrete part of a larger study, provided the proposal explains the work and its value to ornithology.

Paul A. Stewart Grants

Up to four Paul A. Stewart Grants of $2,000 are given annually. The published preference is for studies of bird movements based on banding, radio or satellite telemetry, or similar methods. The Society also gives preference to work emphasizing economic ornithology. A project does not need to use one particular tracking technology, but its question and methods should make the connection to movement studies or economic ornithology clear. The budget should identify the direct research costs that the $2,000 request would cover.

George A. Hall / Harold F. Mayfield Grant

The Hall/Mayfield Grant provides up to one $2,000 award. It is limited to independent researchers who do not have access to funds and facilities available through colleges, universities, or governmental agencies. The Society describes it as restricted to non-professionals, including high school students, and says that any kind of avian research is eligible. The 2026 guidelines state that an applicant for this category must not be associated with a university, research institute, or government agency. That restriction is central to choosing this category; a university-affiliated applicant should consider another category instead.

Eligibility and membership

The official program page says applicants should be current WOS members. The 2026 guidelines make the award condition more direct: applicants must be members of the Wilson Ornithological Society, or willing to become members, and must be members to receive an award. This membership rule should be checked again when the next application window is announced because the Society may revise its instructions.

Beyond membership, eligibility depends on the category. The Fuertes Grant is open to ornithologists conducting avian research, with graduate students and young professionals preferred. The general WOS Research Grants cover any area of ornithology and set aside two awards for Masters-level research and two for undergraduate-level research. The Stewart category favors bird-movement and economic-ornithology proposals. The Hall/Mayfield category is for independent non-professionals without the institutional resources described by the Society, including high school students.

The official material does not state that applicants must live in one country or restrict every grant to work in one region. The Society presents itself as an international scientific society and describes the grants in terms of avian research and category eligibility. Applicants should therefore avoid relying on the old page’s broad geographic shorthand and should use the next cycle’s guidelines for any location-specific question.

What the 2026 application required

The 2026 guidelines required one PDF containing the proposal, budget and justification, and curriculum vitae in that order. The proposal body consisted of the title, abstract, introduction, and methods, and was limited to three pages using 12-point, double-spaced type. The guidelines also asked applicants to include references and to use figures and tables only as needed. The curriculum vitae had a two-page maximum and could include education, relevant employment, papers and posters presented at meetings, and publications.

The proposal needed more than a general description of a bird project. The guidelines asked for relevant background, clear objectives, a research hypothesis or specific goals, the contribution to ornithology, the way the work could stimulate future questions, the benefit of WOS funding, alternatives if WOS funding was not received, and an expected project completion time frame. The methods section needed to describe the research and analytical methods, including statistical treatments, as well as the locality where the research would take place. Proposals involving permits or live-animal capture needed to explain that the applicant had obtained, or had begun securing, the necessary permits and Animal Care and Use training documents.

The budget had to be detailed and justified. Appropriate items named by the guidelines included research-related travel, expendable supplies and equipment, field expenses, and stipends for students or research assistants. Applicants from a university could not receive indirect costs. Each budget item had to be listed separately, and applicants had to indicate whether they were seeking funding from other sources. If an applicant wanted consideration for more than one award category, the justification needed to explain how the project could be modified for the different funding amounts.

The form also asked for contact and applicant information, academic level, current degrees, WOS membership, institution or “N/A” for an independent researcher, proposal title, categories being requested, total amount requested, and an advisor or reference contact. Student applicants supplied advisor information and approval choices; an independent Hall/Mayfield applicant could indicate that there was no advisor. The upload was one PDF containing the proposal, references, optional figures and tables, budget, and CV.

Application process for the closed cycle

For the 2026 cycle, applicants prepared the single PDF, reviewed the category rules, and submitted it electronically through the Google Form linked from the Society’s guidelines. The official guidelines said that applicants would be informed by email that their application had been received and that late or incomplete applications would not be considered. The form itself is now closed, so these steps should be treated as a record of the 2026 process, not as instructions to submit today.

The practical sequence for a future cycle is straightforward once WOS posts new dates: read the new guidelines, confirm membership and category eligibility, prepare the proposal and detailed budget, assemble the CV and any required approvals, combine the materials into the requested PDF, and submit through the form linked by the official Research Grants page. Do not copy the 2026 deadline into a future application plan. The Society has not published the next exact deadline; it has only asked readers to check back around the end of 2026.

Reporting and award obligations

The Society states that willingness to report results is a condition of all grants. Awardees must be prepared to present the research as an oral or poster paper at an annual WOS meeting within five years. They must also provide a brief write-up and a photograph of the awardees for the Society’s webpage. A strong application should account for these obligations from the beginning: keep enough records to describe the project clearly, plan how results will be shared, and make sure the proposed work can produce a meaningful report even if the study encounters ordinary field or laboratory setbacks.

The reporting requirement is not a substitute for the scientific proposal. Reviewers still need a clear question, suitable methods, a realistic schedule, and a budget that matches the requested amount. It does mean that applicants should describe outcomes in terms that can be communicated to the Society’s members and meeting audiences. For a student project, that might include a completed analysis and a conference presentation. For an independent researcher, it might be a carefully documented field study and a concise report that explains what was learned.

What to watch for when the next window opens

Because the next cycle has not been announced, prospective applicants should monitor the official Research Grants page instead of relying on the archived form. Check whether the number of categories, award amounts, membership language, PDF limits, and reporting conditions remain the same. The 2026 page and guidelines support the four categories and amounts recorded here, but future instructions could change them.

In the meantime, a prospective applicant can assemble a research question, outline methods, confirm the relevant locality and permits, and sketch a line-item budget without assuming that the Society will fund a particular expense. Students can identify an advisor or reference contact. Independent applicants can document their lack of access to institutional funds and facilities if they intend to pursue Hall/Mayfield. Everyone should leave room to update the proposal after the next official guidelines are posted.

Official source and status

The authoritative source for the program is the Wilson Ornithological Society Research Grants page: https://wilsonsociety.org/awards/research-grants/. That page currently says the 2026 application period is closed and directs readers to check back around the end of the year for the next application window. It also links the category descriptions, the 2026 proposal guidelines, and the closed application form. The Society has announced the 2026 research-grant recipients, confirming that the cycle has moved beyond applications.

This entry therefore preserves the closed cycle’s real deadline and funding terms while making its status explicit. There is no confirmed next deadline to publish yet. Return to the official WOS page for the next announcement before preparing or submitting an application.