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

Wed Mar 7 14:11:18 CST 2012

Hi, Bill and Eric (and all):

The e-mail address for Dr. Wingfield is:

  jwingfie at nsf.gov

Sorry to have missed that earlier.  -Scott

Also note:

I think it is an important point to note that most if not all federal agencies have ignored the Presidential Directive.  So effectively there is no opportunity for strategic development of collections in either the federal or the academic/private sector. This is a considerable impact on the integrity of collections.

Eric Hoberg
Curator, US National Parasite Collection

On 3/7/2012 1:16 PM, William Lidicker wrote:
> Hi Scott,
>     Could you please supply us with an e-mail address for Wingfield so 
> that we can endorse the letter you enclosed?
> Bill Lidicker
>
> On 3/1/2012 10:48 PM, Scott Lyell Gardner wrote:
>> 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
>> ----------------------
>>
>> 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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