2025 IAWF Student Scholarship Application
Ends on
It’s now 2025 and the IAWF Board is proud to announce its time to promote the scholarly pursuits and graduate level training within the global wildland fire community, the International Association of Wildland Fire (IAWF) will be once again awarding two graduate-level scholarships, each valued at $3,000USD to IAWF members who are Master of Science/Arts (MSc/MA) or Doctoral (PhD) students studying wildland fire or wildland fire related topics.
We encourage applications from students studying any aspect of wildland fire be it from the perspective of physical, ecological or social science to less traditional subject areas as well: we are looking through this scholarship to recognize and support any type of research relevant to the global wildland fire community.
The application period will be open between 14 -March-2025 and 30-April-2025. Scholarship recipients will be announced in early June.
Scholarships will be awarded to the top MSc and top PhD applicants based the student’s submitted essay. Please see the guidelines and application information for details.
Guidelines and Application information
1) The applicant must be a member of IAWF at the time of application and remain so at least during their award period. Visit IAWF web site for details on membership application (http://www.iawfonline.org) and visit the Membership/Benefits for online membership application.
2) The applicant must be enrolled full-time in graduate school with, at the closing date of the scholarship application period, at least 8 months remaining in their program if they are an MSc candidate or 12 months remaining if they are a PhD candidate.
3) The applicant must submit a 500-750 (750 maximum) word essay submitted in English that includes 3 components:
(i) a description of how they have or will overcome challenges and/or barriers associated with their academic program and associated research. These challenges and/or barriers may include, but are not limited to:
§ location of the research (e.g., field site, laboratory, geographic region) § subject area being studied (e.g., non-traditional or evolving research area)
§ country/region of origin or other personal circumstances.
(ii) a description of how the international fire community will benefit from completion of their post graduate studies; and
(iii) a statement of the anticipated benefit the scholarship would bring to the student with particular emphasis on (but not limited to) how scholarship funds would be used to further their research goals and/or allow the dissemination of research to the fire management community (an example would be additional meetings, workshops or conferences attended).
4) The applicant must arrange for a letter of support written in English to be submitted on their behalf by their primary thesis supervisor. The letter of support must confirm: (1) the student is enrolled in an MSc or PhD program under their supervision;
(2) the student has at least 8 months (MSc applicants) or 12 months (PhD applicants) remaining in the program at the time of application;
(3) the content of the student’s essay is accurate; and
(4) the student has the ability to successfully complete the work. The letter may be uploaded below or emailed to Mikel Robinson, execdir@iawonline.org)
5) Upon completing their degree, all scholarship recipients will submit to the Association a copy of the signature page approving the thesis or other similar academic requirement, and a copy of the abstract that appears in the body of the thesis. These materials will be transmitted by the student under a cover letter that states the IAWF is permitted to use the information in these materials in publications of their choosing. The purpose of this authorization/waiver is to allow the IAWF to highlight the success of this program and those of the students sponsored.
6) Scholarship recipients will acknowledge the financial support of the IAWF in all publications or manuscripts arising from work sponsored in part by this scholarship.
7) Completed applications must be received no later than 30-April-2025.
Essay formatting instructions Your name should appear at the top of each page and all pages must be numbered. The text should be double-spaced on Letter (8.5 x 11 inch) or A4 (21 x 29.7 cm) paper. Your completed student essay, including the body of the text and any references, figure or table captions, must not exceed 750 words. Submissions that exceed 750 words, determined from an electronic word count, will be disqualified.
Accepted formats - WORD and PDF.