RECIPES Fellows Program

About

The Resilient, Equitable, and Circular Innovations with Partnership and Education Synergies (RECIPES) is sponsoring collaborative research opportunities for early-career faculty and researchers (within 5 years of receiving a Ph.D. or equivalent terminal degree at submission deadline) from all domains and disciplines actively enrolled in, or formally affiliated with, a US-based institution. RECIPES is an NSF-funded Sustainable Regional Systems research network bringing together over 40 researchers and 15 institutions connected with organizations working across the food system to advance the science needed to make our wasteful food system sustainable, equitable, and resilient.

With a focus on authentic diversity efforts, RECIPES is making deliberate efforts to engage scholars from populations and institutions traditionally underrepresented in sustainable regional systems research. Our goal is for RECIPES Fellows to share decision-making power, increase their academic visibility, and identify ways to collaborate that align with their career goals and promotion and tenure expectations.

To ensure that participants in the RECIPES Fellows Program are best positioned to create cultural transformations within our program and in their institutions, we seek applicants who:

• Demonstrate a strong commitment to fostering cultural change within their organization and research communities, with the ability to embrace, promote, and integrate RECIPES’ guiding principles and community norms into their work. (See the Guiding Principles and Community Norms here).
• Seek an environment that values diversity, equity, and inclusion, and desire to work within a supportive community committed to these principles. We strongly encourage applications from individuals who come from marginalized or underrepresented communities and who would benefit from participating in a program where these inclusive norms are foundational and actively practiced.

Benefits to Fellows

Participant stipends and access to RECIPES resources will expand Fellows’ research communities while offering RECIPES members exposure to new research, experiences, and perspectives. Ideal candidates will conduct research in areas complementary to RECIPES goals and identify explicit ways that Fellows can advance their research agendas, professional development in their disciplines, and leadership at their home institutions. Examples of collaborative projects and activities include grant submissions, peer-reviewed publications, policy creation, and course development.

Application Requirements

Fellows are asked to submit the following materials in a single PDF file to RECIPES program manager, Rachel Weiss (rweiss@american.edu), with the subject line, “RECIPES Fellow Application.”

1. Cover letter addressing
   • RECIPES-related research interests (about two paragraphs)
   • Qualifications
   • Alignment of RECIPES’ initiatives with current and future career goals and the name of one or more current RECIPES researchers who could potentially collaborate on the project (there is no requirement to contact researchers beforehand, but applicants are welcome to do so)
   • Description of a mutually beneficial outcome from RECIPES participation
2. Current curriculum vitae
3. Research statement outlining a proposed 12-month project or collaborative activity
4. Two professional references (contact information only)
5. An electronic copy of one publication relevant to the proposed activity (published or in press)

Fellow Compensation, Expectations, and Deliverables