[Taxacom] NSF to Cut Collections Support Program in DBI by half

[Scott Lyell Gardner]

Dear Friends of Biodiversity:

As some of you may be aware, the FY 2013 budget request for the National 
Science Foundation proposes changes to the Collections Support for 
Biological Research program. In short, the program would be converted to 
a biennial competition and, the budget would be cut in half by this action.

The NSC Alliance and the Society for the Preservation of Natural History 
Collections (SPNHC) jointly developed and have sent a letter to NSF BIO 
urging reconsideration of the proposed change. The letter has been 
signed by the American Association of Museums (AAM), The American 
Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS), and the Association of Science 
Museum Directors (AAMD). The letter is included below.

We encourage all persons and institutions with an interest in long term 
maintenance and discovery of biodiversity to take action and contact 
NSF, the President of the United States, and your congressperson(s) to 
reverse this decision by NSF and, encourage NSF to go the opposite 
direction and boost funding to collections support programs.

Scott Gardner

Secretary, Natural Science Collections Alliance


letter below
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February 24, 2012
Dr. John Wingfield
Assistant Director for Biological Sciences
National Science Foundation
4201 Wilson Boulevard
Arlington, VA 22230

Dear Dr. Wingfield:

In recent years, the National Science Foundation (NSF) and more 
specifically the Biological Sciences Directorate (BIO) have supported 
important new initiatives to advance digitization of our nation’s 
biological collections and improve our understanding of biological 
diversity. For these efforts, we offer our sincere gratitude. We write 
today, however, to express our concern with a provision in the 
President’s fiscal year (FY) 2013 budget request for NSF that we feel 
would harm our nation’s biological specimen collections. We note with 
concern that the budget request proposes changing the Collections in 
Support of Biological Research (CSBR) from an annual to a biennial 
competition and that the funding for this program would effectively be 
cut by half.

The CSBR program provides vitally important support to our nation’s 
biological sciences research collections. We respectfully urge you to 
consider the negative consequences of this proposed change to the 
program and the funding level.
As you are aware, biological science collections are a vital component 
of our nation’s research infrastructure and warrant a sustained 
investment from the NSF, in the same way that other components of our 
scientific research and education infrastructure are supported. Whether 
held at a national museum or in a university science department, these 
scientific resources contain genetic, tissue, organismal, and 
environmental samples that constitute a unique and irreplaceable library 
of Earth’s history. The specimens and their associated data drive 
cutting edge research on the significant challenges facing modern 
society, such as improving human health, food security
and availability, and climate change, and inspire novel 
interdisciplinary research that drives innovation and addresses some of 
the most fundamental questions related to biodiversity, including:

• How are species distributed in geographical and ecological space?
• What is the history of life on Earth?
• How are major groups of organisms related to one another?
• What factors lead to speciation, dispersal, and extinction?
• What are the impacts of climate change likely to be?
• What information is needed for effective conservation strategies?

The federal Interagency Working Group on Scientific Collections 
recognized the value of scientific collections in their 2009 report, 
which found that “scientific collections are essential to supporting 
agency missions and are thus vital to supporting the global research 
enterprise.”

In light of the importance of scientific collections to U.S. research, 
Dr. John Holdren, director of the White House Office of Science and 
Technology Policy, issued a memorandum in October 2010 directing federal 
agencies to budget for proper care of collections. The NSF is the 
primary federal agency that provides support for non-governmental 
collections. Thus, at the same time federal agencies are being tasked 
with supporting governmental collections, we would hope that NSF would 
sustain its support for non-governmental research collections.

In addition to preserving important biological specimens for ongoing and 
future research, CSBR awards are an important source of financial 
support to American-owned companies that specialize in cabinetry and 
supplies used by museums and universities. CSBR awards also directly 
employ researchers and curators, and are used to train the next 
generation of biological scientists and collections specialists.

Given the current financial strain at many museums and universities, 
CSBR funding is a critical lifeline that helps to ensure proper curation 
of specimens. We urge you to reconsider the proposed change to the CSBR 
program.

If you have any questions or require additional information, please do 
not hesitate to contact us or Dr. Robert Gropp, AIBS Director of Public 
Policy, at 202-628-1500 x 250 or rgropp at aibs.org.

Sincerely,

Larry Page Ph.D.,President NSCA
Christopher Norris, Ph.D., President Elect SPNHC
Richard O’Grady, Ph.D., Exec. Director, AIBS
Bonnie Styles, Ph.D., President, ASMD
Ford Bell, DVM, AAM


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Scott Lyell Gardner, Ph.D.
Secretary,  Natural Science Collections Alliance
Curator and Professor
Harold W. Manter Laboratory of Parasitology
W-529 Nebraska Hall
University of Nebraska State Museum and
School of Biological Sciences
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Lincoln, Nebraska 68588-0514

e-mail:slg at unl.edu
Web:http://hwml.unl.edu
ASP Page:http://asp.unl.edu

Phone:    402-472-3334
Fax:       402-472-8949
Cell:       402-540-9310

If we don't work to describe and conserve biodiversity now,
our descendants will be very upset.  -slg

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