| Editorial Note | This month's update contains important NEON, Inc. corporate issues that member institutions have a stake in. Over the next few updates leading to the 2010 Membership Meeting in Reston, VA (USGS HQ) on 9/24/10, we shall be highlighting issues that will be discussed at the meeting. Each NEON, Inc. member institution has an appointed representative who is invited to the meeting, as well as another representative. We encourage you to stay informed about the matters raised in these updates over the next few updates so that your interests can be represented.
This update is more extensive in length than usual, reflecting an extremely active period in corporate activities designed to help NEON, Inc. to better serve the environmental sciences community. We hope that you will take some time to peruse this material, because we are counting on your active support through your institutional representative.
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NEWS@NEON Summer 2010 Edition Published
| The Summer 2010 Edition of NEWS@NEON is now available. Amongst other items, this edition includes:
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Upcoming NEON, Inc. Elections
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Background. The NEON, Inc. bylaws stipulate that the Board of Directors comprise two groups of Directors: At-Large and Membership. The latter group are elected by NEON, Inc.'s institutional member representatives, while the former group are elected by the Directors then in-office. Each Director serves a three-year term. This governance structure allows the corporation to implement an oversight mechanism that provides strategic advice in the areas of science, education, finance, legal considerations, human resource, communications, and corporate development, essential as we continue to build and mature the NEON, Inc. corporation to better serve the needs of the environmental sciences community.
Open Seats. There are two open seats from the Membership Group open for calendar year 2011 through end of 2013. If your institution is a current member of NEON, Inc. in good standing, your institution's member representative has been invited by the NEON, Inc. Board of Directors to submit suggestions for the slate of candidates who will run for elections. Any faculty member or research scientist associated with a member institution is eligible to have their names submitted by the institution's member representative for consideration by the Board. The member representative represents your institution's interest, and suggestions to the Board are borne through that individual.
Next Steps. The last day to suggest individuals through your member representative is July 12 (Monday, 1700 hrs, Pacific Time). From the suggestions it receives, the Board's Governance Committee will put forth a slate of candidates for the elections process. Each member institution, through the institutional representative, gets one vote. The results of the election will be made known at the 2010 Membership Meeting in Reston, VA.
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2010 Membership Meeting
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Objective. This year's meeting promises to be exciting and different from previous years. We are holding it at the USGS HQ in Reston, VA to allow our members to interact with NEON, Inc.'s Federal partners. NEON, Inc. Directors and employees have developed close working relationships with Federal executives and managers over the years. We would like to share with you some of the enthusiasm about NEON expressed by Administration officials, Congressional offices, and senior executives from the Federal agencies.
Meeting Format. In a departure from previous years and based on feedback we have received, there will be shorter presentations followed by panel-style interactive sessions with the audience. Senior Federal executives will be invited to participate in panel discussions and breakout sessions. There will also be a reception the evening before the meeting (9/23/10, Thursday evening) for meeting participants to meet Board Directors. The meeting starts early on Friday (9/24/10) morning and ends around 1500hrs the same day.
Who Should Attend. As with previous years, the lodging for up to two individuals (for up to two nights each) from member institutions in good standing will be covered by NEON, Inc. One of those individuals should preferably be the designated institutional member representative. For the second individual, we encourage member institutions to send an early career scientist. A limited number of travel support for airfare will be available for such early career scientists (or, at the institution's discretion, graduate student or post doc fellow).
Next Steps. A draft meeting agenda will be released sometime mid July, and registrations will open shortly thereafter. Should member institutions elect to send an early career scientist to the meeting, an application for travel support (airfare only) can be made at that time. Only a limited number of such requests can be supported by NEON, Inc.
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Corporate Roadmap Development
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Background. In May 2010, we announced that the National Science Board (governing body of NSF) authorized the NSF Director, at his discretion, to make an award for the construction of NEON. While initially established to serve the ecological community by building the Observatory, NEON, Inc. is a non-profit corporate entity that needs to understand the needs and opportunities for sustained service to the community as the Observatory is constructed. NEON, Inc.'s Board and senior executive staff are therefore working together on a "roadmap development process." Existing plans for building and operating the observatory network will serve as a foundation for and be encompassed in the organizational roadmap; this effort will not reconsider such plans.
Your Role. The engagement of NEON, Inc. member institutions and other partners will be a critical component of considering the future of NEON, Inc. To ensure broad participation, we have engaged the Meridian Institute to facilitate the process. Meridian, a not-for-profit organization based in Dillon, Colorado, specializes in designing and facilitating collaborative processes and
strategy assessment and planning that engage diverse stakeholders across multiple sectors.
Objective. Goals of the roadmap development process include:
- Reviewing NEON, Inc.'s vision, mission, and core values;
- Refining the organization's strategic goals during the execution of the Observatory;
- Considering the most appropriate role(s) for NEON, Inc., over the longer-term (5 to 10 years); and,
- Engaging key partners and interested parties, including current members and government agencies, in refinement of objectives and identification of major activities to accomplish NEON, Inc.'s strategic goals.
Next Steps. Over the course of the summer, Meridian will conduct interviews across NEON, Inc.'s communities of interest in order to map key issues and strategic questions facing the organization. A cross-section of member organizations will be included. At the membership meeting, Meridian will share a summary of progress on this effort and solicit your input on specific questions and issues regarding execution and use of the observatory, development of NEON, Inc. and the role of its members, and proposed revisions to NEON, Inc.'s vision, mission, and values.
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NEON Invited to Present Before White House Working Group
| David Schimel (CEO, NEON, Inc.) was invited to provide a brief NEON overview before the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology
(PCAST) Biodiversity Preservation and Ecosystem Sustainability Working Group on 6/24/10. The working group of experts includes both PCAST and non-PCAST members and is co-chaired by PCAST members Rosina Bierbaum and Barbara Schaal. NEON's Federal partners from the USDA, Smithsonian, NASA, NOAA, and USGS were also invited by the Working Group to present briefings. The information gathered through the meeting will be provided to PCAST who will then provide its report on the topic to the President.
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NEON on the Hill
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NEON, Inc. together with a number of scientific societies sponsored a Congressional briefing to provide the opportunity to examine which climate change
science results are well understood and where key uncertainties exist, including issues recently covered in the media such as climate impacts on glaciers and recent temperature trends. The discussion with the distinguished panelists included examination of the peer-review process, data sources, research processes, statistical analysis, and how various bodies like the IPCC conduct their studies and assessments.
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NEON on the International Scene
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- The US and Brazilian Forest Services sponsored Michael Keller's (Chief of Science) participation in an international symposium recognizing 30 years of forest management research in the Brazilian Amazon region. Michael presented a lecture entitled "Ecosystem Services and Forest Management in the Brazilian Amazon Region: Findings from the Large Scale Biosphere-Atmosphere Experiment in Amazonia (LBA)."
- Together with colleagues from Colombia and Brazil, Michael Keller is organizing a special session for the AGU meeting of the Americas on "Environmental and Geophysical Observatories and Data Networks in the Americas." Scientists and informatics specialistsfrom Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Mexico, and the United States will participate in this session. The session has been accepted by AGU and talks and posters are now scheduled.
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NEON Prospectus Available
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NEON
has recently released an informational booklet on plans
for site construction and what landowners can expect with a NEON site on
their
property, called the NEON Prospectus. The 16-page booklet is available
on the NEON web site in pdf format.
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Solicitations
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(Please click the respective links to check the original source of information. The abbreviated text below may not reflect amendments to the original announcements, and may not reflect the original intent of the solicitation.)
- Advances in Biological Informatics
- Excerpt: The Advances in Biological Informatics (ABI) program seeks to encourage new approaches to the analysis and dissemination of biological knowledge for the benefit of both the scientific community and the broader public. The ABI program is especially interested in the development of informatics tools and resources that have the potential to advance, or transform, research in biology supported by the Directorate for Biological Sciences at the National Science Foundation.
- Critical dates: August 23, 2010
- Research Coordination Networks (RCN)
- Excerpt: The goal of this program is to advance a field or create new directions in research or education. Innovative ideas for implementing novel networking strategies are especially encouraged. Groups of investigators will be supported to communicate and coordinate their research, training and educational activities across disciplinary, organizational, geographic and international boundaries.
- Critical dates: See NSF website.
- Macrosystems Biology
- Excerpt: NSF invites proposals from interdisciplinary
teams of scientists to conduct innovative, integrated, systems-oriented
"macrosystems biology" research to detect, understand and forecast the
consequences of climate and land use change and invasive species on the
biosphere at regional to continental scales. Proposals should address
the scales where the ecological research challenges are the greatest and
where research has the greatest potential to transform the field of
ecology by addressing scaling issues that have long hindered development
of large-scale ecology. Projects should strive to provide a mechanistic understanding of how
multiple scale dynamics contribute to the structure, functioning, and
change of the biosphere, and lead to the development of a more
predictive understanding of ecological change. Proposals should be well
grounded in theory, include novel approaches that will result in a
theoretical framework for a predictive understanding of macroscale
biology, and shows great promise for enhancing basic theoretical
understandings.
- Critical dates: Full proposal due September 16, 2010.
- Informal Science Education (ISE)
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Excerpt: The ISE program supports innovation in anywhere, anytime, lifelong learning, through investments in research, development, infrastructure, and capacity-building for STEM learning outside formal school settings. Critical dates: Full proposals due: December 7, 2010.
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Key Dates in 2010
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08/01-06: ESA Annual Meeting (Pittsburgh, PA)
09/22-23: NEON, Inc.
Board of Directors Meeting (Reston, VA)
09/23: Evening Reception for Membership (Reston, VA)
09/24: NEON, Inc. Annual Member's Meeting (Reston, VA)
09/22-26: OBFS Annual Meeting (U. Mich. Biological Station)
10/14-15: AERC Annual Meeting (Washington, DC)
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