PEAT Needs

Funding for Peatland ECR

Apply for micro-funds during the summer field season

PeatNeeds is back for financial support of peatland ECR!

There are expenses coming up during the peatland year that you need to pay for, but you don’t know how to finance them?

We are able to provide Peat ECR with micro-funds, thanks to the peatland-loving community. The profits of the 2025 PEAT Calendar along with other generous donations, allow us to bring back #PeatNeeds during field seasons around the globe!

We will give out one micro grant each season (four times per year) and award up to 125 CAN$. 

Fill out the application form

Fundable expenses can include: new personal field gear, work-from-home equipment, manuscript proofreading, technical or training courses (to expand your skills in, i.e. statistics, ecology, Indigenous knowledge, etc.), etc.

Requirements

  • You are a Peat ECR (early career researchers/students/professionals – within 7 years of terminal degree)
  • You work in a peat/peatland-related project 
  • There are no country or age restrictions! All Peat ECR from anywhere in the world and any age category are eligible to apply (if requirements mentioned above apply). 
  • Exclusions: If you have previously been awarded a Peat Needs micro-grant, you are not eligible to apply

Guidelines

If you are interested please fill in our Google form by the end of July 31, 2026. Please apply only once, to give others a fair chance.

Please provide a photograph of yourself.

Please provide a short description of your research and an explanation of how the grant will be used.

PEAT Needs Winners – 2025

  • A smiling Dylan, with brown hair cut short, and a beard, wearing glasses and a black leather jacket is seen indoors. The background features a modern glass atrium with staircases, plants, and natural light.
    Dylan Oliver (Royal Holloway, University of London, England) aims to understand how their complex structure affects their biodiversity and ecosystem service provision (e.g. carbon storage).
  • Laura, wearing a maroon jacket, green pants, and rubber boots, is sitting on colorful Sphagnum moss in a peatland near a small pond. The background features low vegetation, evergreen trees, and a cloudy sky.
    Laura Catalina Riaño Peña (Université Laval, Canada) is working on ecological restoration of pools in ombrotrophic and minerotrophic peatlands in Canada.
  • Sebastian wearing a black jacket takes a selfie on an eddy covariance tower above the forest canopy, with various weather or environmental monitoring instruments around him. In the background, there is a vast expanse of dense green forest under a partly cloudy sky.
    Sebastian Kalang William (University of Tartu, Estonia) is working on measuring GHG fluxes in tropical peat swamp forests and land use change.

PEAT Needs Winners – 2024

  • Ian is standing in an exclosure in a grassland. He is wearing a ball cap, blue jumper, and black trousers. Ian is reaching up to the eddy covariance tower he uses to measure greenhouse gases.
    Ian Clancy (Trinity College, Ireland) is working to quantify the carbon and GHG dynamics of grassland on peat in Ireland. To do this he uses the eddy covariance method with the Teagasc NASCO network and automated chambers on a site in Gurteen Co. Tipperary
  • Emelie is standing on a boardwalk in a boreal peatland and is wearing a brown toque, orange high vis vest, beige trousers, and black rubber boots. Emilie is facing the camera, has a huge smile and is giving two thumbs up.
    Emelie Obi (University of Western Ontario, Canada) research focuses on how oribatid mites, the dominant microarthropods in boreal peatlands, respond to climate change and associated environmental shifts.
  • Kieran is crouching on a degraded area of blanket bog. He is wearing a faded ball cap, black rain coat, trousers and rain boots. Kieran is smiling at the camera and his hand is resting on a pitfall trap.
    Kieran Boyd (Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland) research focuses on characterising the invertebrate communities of upland blanket bogs in Ireland and understanding how these communities respond to blanket bog restoration.
  • Yuwen is standing in a peatland wearing a yellow and black coat, black trousers, and pink backpack. Yuwen is smiling at the camera and holding a differential GPS.
    Yuwen Pang (University of Helsinki, Finland) is specialising in using remote sensing to study vegetation phenology in northern peatlands.
  • Kamil is in a forested peatland in front of a boardwalk, wearing blue t-shirt and straw hat.
    Kamil Sardar (University of Tartu, Estonia) research focuses on quantifying greenhouse gas emissions from drained peatlands in the Hemiboreal region of northern Europe.
  • Dana is crouching in a peatland next to a hummock and in front of a pool. Dana is wearing a yellow raincoat, black rain pants, and is smiling at the camera. In the background there are a couple of mountains with a dusting of snow.
    Dana Druka (University of Edinburgh, Scotland) research focuses on molecular techniques to assess peatland function, particularly relating to peat formation and decomposition.

PEAT Needs Winners – 2023

  • Dave O’Leary (University of Galway, Ireland) is working on bringing both undergraduate, postgraduate, postdoctoral and senior researchers together on research sites to to assess the application and impact of water table management on carbon-rich soils.
  • Keira McManus (Wilfried Laurier University, Canada) is working on understanding how nutrient release from thawing permafrost is impacting peatlands in the Canadian boreal forests, and the ability of plants to acquire and use these novel nutrients.
  • Talal Asif (Université Laval, Canada) is working on the question if external phenolic additions can limit decomposition through enzymic latch strengthening at post-extracted peatlands in Quebec, Canada.
  • Emma Duell (University of Plymouth, UK) is assessing carbon dynamics in wet woodlands in the UK, determining past landscape dynamics using paleo-environmental techniques and linking current and future carbon sequestration to ecohydrological variables, whilst also making comparisons to other wetland ecosystems.
  • Abbey Marcotte (Wageningen University, Netherlands) studying physical runoff processes, modelling and chemical tracing in catchments in temperate peatlands following drought and wildfire disturbance.
  • Kathleen Milne (Wilfried Laurier University, Canada) is working on lichen seeding in the Northwest Territories, Canada, to determine if it is a viable method of re-establishing caribou lichen after disturbance.
  • Shona Jenkins (University of Edinburgh, UK) on a field trip exploring the human uses, local values and uses of tropical peatland forests in the DRC’s Cuvette Centrale peatland.
  • Violeta Martinez (University of Barcelona, Spain) studies the influence of climate change in the largest cushion peatland in the Colombian Andes.
  • Frantz Zebaze (Sangmelima Resilience Association, Cameroon) evaluates the peatland thickness in the Dja-et-lobo division (South region of Cameroon) with high resolution, to make a peatland map of the region and provide useful resources for decision-making in natural resources conservation.

PEAT Needs Winners – 2022

  • @yvettelgenkamp
    Yvet Telgenkamp, studying plant-microbe interactions in Northern Peatlands at Radboud University Nijmegen
  • @cheristyjones
    Cheristy Jones, studying terrestrial-aquatic linkages and C-cycling in the Arctic at Colorado College
  • @RominaTresEles
    Romina Llanos studying paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic reconstruction of Andean peatlands during the Holocene
  • Jessica Turner studying the relationship between the partial pressure of CO2 in wetland surface waters and wetland CO2 fluxes
  • María Fernanda Chiappero aiming to underst the mechanisms through which different biotic and abiotic factors determine soil C stocks of vegas, particular Andean wetlands, along an altitudinal gradient
  • Alanna Bodo participates in a workshop on visual abstracts/infographics for her studies as dedicated peatland biometeorologist.
  • Charuni Jayasekara studying Carbon dynamics of the Australian Alpine and Tropical peatlands.
  • Dingha Babila working on improving governance for sustainable utilisation of peatlands in Cameroon.
  • Michelle Kalamandeen collaborates with indigenous communities to map the carbon stocks in the Hudson and James Bay Lowlands, Canada.

PEAT Needs Winners – 2021

  • Alexis Stansfield from Lehigh University, USA, working on modelling peat core hiatus causes using the Holocene Peat Model
  • Wahaj Habib, PhD student at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, studying management impacts on peatland function
  • Elena Aitova, studying to restore the carbon storage capacity of peatlands at the University of Galway, Ireland.

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