Aim
The aim of the program is to provide a central point of contact for the exchange of research ideas and needs between students, mentors, and laboratories. This collaboration will be done with transparency and scientific rigor. The role of the coordinator of this project is to oversee the progression of research as specified below. With the purpose of instilling effective partnership, the application process allows for a successful match of a researcher with an idea and possibly a mentor and/or laboratory.
Objectives:
- To connect researchers, ideas, mentors, and laboratories with students who are interested in able to conduct research in the realm of wildlife forensics.
- To establish a high quality of research that meets forensic science standards.
- To ensure ethical and accurate results by monitoring the results.
- To provide SWFS with a way of monitoring the progress of this program.
- To provide researchers and mentors with a publishable peer-reviewable product.
- To provide a central source that allows for peer review and discussion of published material.
Role of the coordinator:
- The coordinator is the central source that links the entire production.
- The coordinator will be responsible for matching the applications in a way that is beneficial to all parties.
- The coordinator will monitor the progress of the research as a way of ensuring effective partnership, accuracy, ethicality, and quality.
The process
The student/researcher/intern will submit an application to the program that will be catalogued and filed. A similar process will be done for labs or individuals that have research ideas that need to be done (attached with this email are several application templates). Once there is a research idea and student who whose purpose aligns, the coordinator would match the two together. At that point it would be up to the two entities to work on the finer details of getting the project going. All research conducted would be done in a way that the end result would be a publishable paper or a thesis (at the cost of the student/university or lab). The stipulation on the participation in the program is that the research would be monitored by SWFS for scientific rigor and ethics. Further, they would acknowledge the Society in the publication resulting from the research. Upon the completion of the work there would be a copy of the final publication/thesis housed with the Society and if necessary the Society will have access to the raw data. If the project is funded through a private company, said company will reserve the right to disseminate the information as they deem necessary or if at all.