The Tropical Resources Institute currently administers both the TRI Endowment Fellowship,  which supports Masters and Doctoral level research in the tropics each year, and the Andrew Sabin International Environmental Fellowship, which provides tuition and post-graduate support to F&ES students from developing countries. Scroll down for more details on these fellowships.

TRI works closely with F&ES students interested in tropical research, advising students on research design, proposal development, and field methods, as well as facilitating in-country collaborations in some cases. The proposal development and advising that we offer students has helped them craft highly successful proposals and find matching funds from other donors on campus, such as the MacMillan Center, Coca-Cola World Fund at Yale, South Asian Studies Council, Southeast Asian Studies Council, Council on Latin American and Iberian Studies, among many others. TRI requires applicants to apply to additional funding sources, both on and off campus; a detailed list of these funders can be found here.

TRI also maintains research partnerships with organizations interested in collaborating with F&ES students.  Contact Philip Marshall, TRI Program Manager, at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) for more information on these partnerships or on the research assistance TRI provides. 

Important Information for Applicants

Public briefings on both the TRI and Sabin awards are held for the F&ES student body early in the Fall semester. Deadlines for proposals also will be announced later in the fall semester. In the interim, students planning to apply to the TRI Endowment Fellowship should bear the following points in mind as they plan their course-work and research:

(1) Applicants must demonstrate language competency for international research.  Proposals by students without such competency are usually unsuccessful, not just at TRI but across the university.  Any necessary language course work, especially by Master’s students, must typically start in the FALL semester of their first year.

(2) Course selection during this same FALL semester should be designed insofar as curriculum guidelines permit to focus on courses that will give the student the necessary theoretical and conceptual underpinnings to write coherent, focused, topical research proposals by early in the SPRING semester.

(3) By the start of the SPRING semester, prospective applicants should also be working to obtain Human Subjects Committee approval, or waivers, for their research from the Institutional Review Board. See the following two pages for more information: Getting Started and Forms, Templates, and Instructions

Please note: Funding from the TRI Endowment Fellowship may only be used to cover expenses associated with summer research projects and is not available to cover any preliminary expenses - including mid-year travel to field sites - incurred by students in the development of their individual projects. Nor are TRI funds available for travel during the academic year to meetings, etc.

Feel free to contact TRI with specific fellowship questions.To apply for fellowships administered by TRI, students should visit the Yale Student Grants Database.

TRI Endowment Fellowship

TRI's Endowed Fellowship Program is designed to support Master's and Doctoral level research in tropical countries. Each year TRI provides funding and logistical support for 20-30 students at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. Over the past twenty-two years TRI has supported over 450 student research projects in more than 60 different countries. Following the mission of F&ES, these projects are interdisciplinary in nature and cover a wide range of issues that surround the study, management, and conservation of tropical resources. TRI encourages both natural and social science research. Details

Andrew Sabin International Environmental Fellowship

The Andrew Sabin International Environmental Fellowship supports the education and training of international students from less-developed countries, who intend to return to their home region to work in the field of conservation and development. The fellowship, generously funded by the Andrew Sabin Family Foundation, provides up to $20,000 in support for tuition for the second year of Master’s study, and up to $15,000 in post-graduation awards for those pursuing environmental careers in their home region. Details