Checklist For Conducting Research

1. Discuss your research plans with Dr. Patricia Wright and the staff of ICTE.

2. Review the project budgets and costs and the permit requirements. Be sure that your budget to sponsors includes all items.

3. At least  three months before you plan to begin your research in Madagascar, prepare a draft of your Madagascar National Parks proposal and send it to the Program Officer at the ICTE/Stony Brook office for review. Please submit your MNP proposals by email. We suggest that you prepare your MNP proposal at the same time that you submit proposals to sponsors. At this time, also send a signed waiver and liability release to ICTE for each participant on your project.

4. At least three months before you plan to begin your research, read, understand, and take necessary actions outlined in the MICET Research Facilitation Guidelines

5. If you plan to collect and/or export biological samples, include in your MNP prposal a preliminary list of samples that you expect to collect or export. Be generous in your estimates, but as specific as possible.

6. Revise your MNP proposal, based on ICTE feedback, and submit the final copy by email to the Program Officer at the ICTE/Stony Brook office and to MICET and the Centre ValBio Chief Technical Advisor.  MICET will provide translation into French and submission to MNP and MEFT.

7. Prepare for your trip to Madagascar. Learn some French and Malagasy. Be sure that you have international health insurance (required for all researchers facilitated by ICTE) and medical evacuation insurance (for example, International SOS). Buy small gifts to bring to your students, assistants, Malagasy officials, and others that may help you (suggested gifts: caps, t-shirts, pens, playing cards, music tapes (few Malagasies have CD players or MP3 players)).

8. Get 2 passport-sized photos (of you!) and bring them with you. At least one month before you plan to go to Madagascar, get started obtaining your visa (see Field Guide for Researchers).

9. Email a copy of your flight itinerary to the MICET office, with a copy to the ICTE/Stony Brook Program Officer as soon possible.

10. Before you leave for Madagascar, confirm with the MICET office that your research permit has been approved by MNP and send a copy of the approval email to the ICTE Program Officer at Stony Brook.

11. Once you arrive in Antananarivo, check in at the MICET office, meet the helpful staff, ask questions, and pay the MICET Facilitation Fee.

12. Be sure to meet with traditional, government, MEFT, and MNP officials in the local area where you will conduct research. Offer to talk to local school children, youth groups, village elders, or others about your research or related conservation issues. We suggest that you offer to give a presentation about your research to the local University.

13. Do your research!

14. Before you leave Madagascar, write a brief exit report (2 pages) describing where and when your research was conducted and what was done, and outlining any results obtained so far. The MICET staff will translate the report into French and submit it to MNP for you. Also, meet with MNP officials for a debriefing. We suggest that you offer to give a presentation about your research to students and professors at the University of Antananarivo.

15. Upon returning home, send a copy of your exit report to the Program Officer at ICTE/Stony Brook.

16. Within 6-8 months of leaving Madagascar, submit a Final Report to the Program Officer at ICTE/Stony Brook. It will be sent to the MICET office for translation and then submitted to MNP. This final report might be a copy of a report sent to a sponsor.

17. Send 8 copies (5 for MNP, 3 for ICTE) of all publications to the ICTE/Stony Brook office.