The NSC Alliance thanks all collections that completed the recent survey on the impacts of the current global economic condition on natural science collections. Survey data are being analyzed and a short report will be released before the end of the year. Continue Reading »
The Stockholm Biodiversity Informatics Symposium 2008, will be held at the Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm, Sweden, 1-4 December 2008.
The Symposium is co-organized by the Swedish Global Biodiversity Information Facility (BGIF) Node, the Swedish FishBase Secretariat, and the Swedish Museum of Natural History, and provides a broad coverage of Biodiversity Informatics and beyond from more than 40 specialist speakers.
The National Science Foundation is accepting nominations for their highest honor, the 2009 Alan T. Waterman Award. Since being established by Congress in 1975, the Alan T. Waterman Award has been bestowed upon outstanding scientists and engineers who have demonstrated exceptional individual achievement, placing them at the forefront of their peers. The annual awardee is presented with a medal and receives a grant for $500,000 over a three year period for scientific research or advanced study in the biological, physical, mathematical, engineering, social or other science field of choice. Nominations will be accepted through 5 December 2008.
For more information, download the PDF: 2009 Waterman Award
NEWS RELEASE
For release: 27 October 2008
Contact: Robert Gropp, 202-628-1500
Natural Science Collections Group Working to Identify Impacts of Negative Economy on Scientific Research, Education Institutions
Washington, DC – The Natural Science Collections Alliance (NSC Alliance), the United States’ leading nonprofit association serving natural science collections, their human resources, and the institutions that house them for the benefit of science and society has launched a survey to identify how the current global financial meltdown may affect natural science collections.
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NSCA would like to thank all those who took the time to fill out the collections and economy survey. The survey is now closed. A report outlining survey results is forthcoming and will be posted to the NSCA website. Continue Reading »
The National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the United States Department of Energy (DOE) are accepting applications to establish or continue the International Cooperative Biodiversity Groups (ICBG) program. The program would address the “interdependence of biodiversity exploration for potential applications in health and energy, with investments in research capacity that support sustainable use of these resources, the knowledge to conserve them and equitable partnership frameworks among research and development organizations in the U.S. and low and middle income countries.”
This Request for Proposals (RfP) seeks proposals from institutions that house high-quality information and data at the Species level, that is, scientific descriptions that characterize species of organisms. It does not seek proposals to digitize specimen level information (descriptions of specimens or field observations). Proposals that are accepted will be awarded seed grants to make data available through the IABIN Species and Specimens Thematic Network (SSTN). Within the IABIN framework, the SSTN provides Internet access to metadata and datasets currently scattered and inaccessible, as well as tools for creating and managing information, so as to facilitate the biodiversity information exchange throughout the Western Hemisphere. The overall goal of these SSTN Content-Building Grants is to make species data accessible and interoperable through IABIN.
DEADLINE: 10 December 2008
For more information, view the request.
http://www.iabin.net/Download-document/729-SSTN-Request-for-Proposals-Data-Content-Building-Grants-for-Especies.html
The increasingly negative economic conditions facing the United States and the world certainly are no longer news. Although huge swings in the financial markets still garner headlines, news reports are increasingly focused on how the negative economic climate is impacting governments and other institutions.
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In 2007, a dozen U.S. federal agencies formed a group, under the support of the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program, to discuss guidelines, methods, and best practices for digitizing historical data. These agencies shared a common conviction that establishing digitization guidelines “will enhance the exchange of research results and developments, encourage collaborative digitization practices and projects among federal agencies and institutions and provide the public with a product of uniform quality.” This group has unveiled a new initiative that has created two working groups, the Federal Agencies Still Image Digitization Working Group, which will focus on image content such as books, manuscripts, maps, and photographic prints and negatives and the Federal Agencies Audio-Visual Working Group, which will focus on sound, video, and motion picture film. Continue Reading »
A new one-page document is available from the NSC Alliance to educate the general public on the opportunities and benefits of natural science collections. For a lower resolution copy, click NSCA 1-pager. Please contact Robert Gropp, Director of Public Policy, for a higher resolution copy.
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