Proposals are a fact of life when permits and funding are needed to conduct any activity. Model proposals and protocols are provided here to help new stations get through the start up chores of proposal and protocol writing.
Any well-run research project should have a written protocol that lays out all operational details; some investigators call this the “hit by a bus” document, meaning that if all participants were hit by a bus, someone could step in and run the operation in precisely the same manner, based on the protocol.
More importantly, a written protocol is part of a study’s permanent metadata, the information that informs and explains the field data, including how it was collected. Creating and maintaining a protocol is an important step in any well-designed study.
The model proposal and protocol are only available to individuals seriously contemplating opening an owl banding station and Project Owlnet members. Non Project Owlnet members can obtain copies of these two documents by contacting one of the Project Owlnet organizers (see About Us-Project Owlnet Coordinators).