News Flash: NSF's Budget Request for NEON
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The Obama Administration's FY11 budget request to Congress was unveiled today (February 1, 2010) in a number of budget briefings in Washington, D.C.
The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) held a briefing at the AAAS Building in Washington, D.C. attended by the press and representatives from various institutions. The speakers included John Holdren (Director and Assistant to the President for
Science and Technology), Aneesh Chopra (Chief Technology Officer and Associate Director,
Technology), Shere Abbott (OSTP Associate Director, Energy & Environment), Jane Lubchenco (NOAA Administrator), and Arden Bement (NSF Director). Dr. Bement presented an overview of NSF's $7.4 billion budget request to Congress, and announced that "NSF has added plans to build the National Ecological Observatory Network
(NEON), a multi-faceted project with a total projected budget of $434
million, spread out over the next six fiscal years." The recorded webcast of the entire OSTP briefing (including Dr. Bement's remarks) can be found here sometime in the afternoon of February 2 (to be confirmed, details are still forthcoming).
Dr. Bement's full remarks at the follow-up briefing at NSF can be found here, including the announcement that "NSF will spend $20 million to begin construction of NEON in 2011".
NEON was also mentioned in a fact-sheet distributed at the briefing titled "Building America's Research Infrastructure" and the FY11 budget request summary brochure.
More information about NEON can also be found in NSF's publication on the FY11 budget request. In the Biology Directorate's section of the budget request, it mentions that "With the FY 2011 MREFC funding request to begin NEON construction, the project emphasis begins to shift from project planning to construction. New programs such as macrosystems biology and multi-scale modeling will continue to support foundational research activities by the community of potential NEON users. " Page BIO-17 further explains "...EF (Emerging Frontiers) will focus on supporting research activities relevant to NEON, including macrosystems biology and multi-scale modeling (total of $10 million)."
In the MREFC section of the budget request, NSF describes the complementarity between NEON and LTER, NEON's open data policy, and NEON's integral role in providing information for research and resource management. For example, "NEON will enable research on the impacts of climate and land use change, unsustainable water use, and invasive species on the Nation's living ecosystems at the temporal and spatial scales that are relevant to human well-being. NEON will be the first research platform and the only national experimental facility specifically designed to enable such basic research" (Page MREFC-5). The report also provides examples of NEON's ongoing and upcoming collaborations with US Federal agencies.
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