About Frank van der Most
Data, databases and apps ( Claris FileMaker ) for nature conservation and sustainability research. Funding expertise as a bonus
Which category below best describes the type of organisation you currently work for/or run?
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Would you be willing to be approached and share your lessons learned in your area(s) of expertise with our community?
Would you like to be added to the calendar invitation for our monthly WildHub Socials?
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Nervours Daka
Donor Relations Specialist, AFRICAN HEALTH VOLUNTEERS FOR EMERGENCY RESPONSE RESCUE AND REFERRALS PARTNERSHIPS
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Hello, fellow Conservation Catalysts
Just before my summer holidays, Thirza invited me as late new member to this year's cohort of conservation catalysts. I gladly join! It seems a really good start for me to learn about the world of nature conservation, and the lives and works of its members.
Thirza also invited me to introduce myself via a post in this private room. I already wrote an introduction to the entire forum here https://wildhub.community/posts/databases-and-funding-expertise to which I have not so much to add ... except looking forward to e-meeting you all somehow ... or even better, meet in real life if you happen to be in Costa Rica.
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There also is a booklet on beekeeping in the tropics, published by Agromisa. Dowload here : https://www.agromisa.org/wp-content/uploads/Agrodok-32-Beekeeping-in-the-tropics.pdf
It is also available in French and Portuguese. Go to the download page here : https://www.agromisa.org/free-download-our-publications/
and browse down to publication nr. 32.
Hi Jess,
at the Jaguar Rescue Center ( near Puerto Viejo, Limon, Costa Rica ) they work with volunteers at the center's clinic. The JRC advertises for volunteers on their website, but not for these clinic positions. I don't know if they need volunteers right now but would be happy to ask the head vet ( is that the phrase? ) if you are interested.
cheers
Frank
Yeah, I have been meaning to ask this too, Jess! Sorry for not actually having done it
Thanks for sharing this opportunity Frank and I hope you are well. Would you have any ideas on how WildHub could apply for this opportunity in the next round?
thanks for your comment, Thirza, and yes, I am doing fine, thank you.
I got the impression that this was a one round call for this particular question. The website suggests that there are annual calls, each with its own specific topic/question. It is a matter of keeping an eye out.
WildHub is a very open community. The only requirement is having an interest in nature conservation. There are no criteria when it comes to education, geographical location, cultural background, or experience in the field for example. This inclusiveness clearly shows in the still ongoing growth of the community and probably resonates with Mozilla Foundation's aims. However, I doubt that this in itself is enough to win a grant.
Hi Frank, many thanks for this contribution. It sounds like it was not a straight road for Cristina but she managed to find a balance between where her passion and her talents lie.
Would it be possible to invite her as a contributor to this post so we can ask her some follow up questions? Thanks!
Hi Thirza, thanks for your comment. I offered Cristina to be a contributor, but she graciously declined. If you want to ask her questions, you can find her on LinkedIn and her personal website ( although I don't know if that has the possibility of commenting )
Sorry for the late reply. I have been on long holidays.
I used ChatGPT to see if it could generate a useful logo for my company ... waste of my time. I could have prodded for more or better but ran out of the monthly free credits and the results thus far did not incentivize me to spend a dime.
Besides the direct questions and issues that you raise, I am more interested in the dynamics of a world, or in this case the entire conservation sector, that starts using ChatGPT or other AI tools? Does that lead to more or less good or bad results, or will the developments all balance out to a new status quo - different but in many ways the same? For example, what happens if all funding applications are written with the help of ChatGPT?
There is a matter of access. Can everybody in a sector have the same access to such tools? Or do we get a reproduction of the same 'haves' and 'haves not'? Or perhaps it becomes a matter of who can pay what for the use of which AI? What does that do to the overall dynamics in nature conservation?
What happens if both parties of an interaction use an AI tool? For example, an applicant can use ChatGPT to write a funding proposal, but a sponsor can also use an AI to analyze those proposals. Perhaps ChatGPT can be used to recognize its own handywork. If so, will the proposal loose points in the evaluation, or is a good idea simply a good idea - no matter who or what came up with it? And are the sponsors going to use an AI to determine what is a good idea?
About your footnote ... another conclusion could be that considering that you wanted to write a text that is 'yours' and you did invest two hours, could you not also have spent the two hours to write it from scratch? The situation sounds similar as with OCR and voice recognition : the tech works fast but is not flawless, and correcting the mistakes, i.e. make it perfect, can take as much time as not using the tech.
We will see a lot of actions, changes, discussion, panics, fears, expectations, warnings, etc., just as we have seen with all ground breaking technology from the past ( stone tools, fire, the wheel, bronze and iron, printing press, steam engines, electricity, combustion engines, nuclear technology, plastics, biotechnology, internet, nanotechnology, smart phones). Do we have a better world now than x decades or centuries ago? Well, in some respects yes, in others no, and in yet other respects things have become downright worse. Will that be really different, simply because this time it is really next-next-level new? For the time being, I think not.
Should we then not be discussing opportunities, risks and fears? Of course we should, otherwise things will be really different this time. But we should do more than discuss the technology, not be blinded by the novelty, and definitely consider the societies in which it is being integrated.
Hi Muhammad, thank you for sharing your question with the community! Let me pull in some more members into this conversation who may be able to help answer your question:
@Zoe Melvin, @Asghar khan , @Fay Taylor : given your university studies, would you be able to advise Muhammad on grants for travel to a conference? Many thanks in advance for your help!
We also have a database of grants opportunities (see the link below), which can be found in room description of the grant opportunities room. WildTeam and the Asian Species Action Partnership (ASAP) compiled the original list. WildHub members helped add to it: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_8XfKnI9lkjfy02pIBbJQRFMJNWOEegZml7AUH7bixs/edit#gid=814568326
@Frank van der Most : have you found any funding opportunities specific to cover conference (travel) costs perhaps? Dankjewel!
Hope these resources help you on your way!
Probably too late, but who knows ... usually one would search for funding at research councils in the country of origin or the country of destination. Perhaps there are supra-national organizations.
They may all require at least a poster presentation.
One option is applying for paid positions. I know that in some countries, people are paid to work as a PhD student ( since the PhD student not only studies, but also teaches and does research, by law it is considered a job ). This is the case in The Netherlands and Sweden. I think also Germany, and would not be surprised about other countries. One has to apply for the job, not for a grant.
Otherwise, it is hard work to find something. You 'liked' my overview article (thank you for that), so you know about it. Keep in mind that student-ship grants are grants, not salaries. So, one probably has to pay insurances privately.
With this one, perhaps wildlabs.net is a better forum to ask.
My two cents: you'd need to be more specific about the amount of data in MBs or TBs that you expect to get. "6hr video" is not saying that much because a lot depends on filetype and quality for example.
If the total is ranging in TBs then consider from where all this data is going to be uploaded to a cloud. If the connection is lousy, you may have to wait for days. You'll need to know exactly how fast your network is and how much data you want to upload to be able to calculate approx. how much time it is going to take. Perhaps you are better of with harddisks ( including back-up disks ) instead of cloud space.