CNIE Progress Report
Date: Thu, 11 Feb 1999 12:53:17 -0500 Reply-To: khutton@cnie.org Sender: owner-cnie@csf.colorado.edu From: khutton <gkhutton@cnie.org>g To: Committee for NATL INST for the ENVIRONMENT <gcnie@csf.colorado.edu>g Subject: CNIE Progress Report National Science Foundation requests $670 million for "Biocomplexity" Task Force on the Environment Seeks Comments on Future Role of Foundation" The National Science Foundation (NSF), under the leadership of its new Director, Dr. Rita Colwell, is organizing its environmental portfolio under the theme: Biocomplexity in the Environment (BE). According to NSF, "BE describes an NSF wide set of increasingly coordinated activities in environmental science, engineering, and education. It includes both focused initiatives and core research programs aimed at fostering research on the complex interdependencies among the elements of specific environmental systems and the interactions of different types of systems. NSF's FY 2000 investment for BE totals about $670 million, an increase of $70 million over the FY 1999 level of approximately $600 million." "BE reflects the evolution of NSF thinking about how NSF-supported research on the environment can best take advantage of opportunities provided by advances throughout science and engineering and, at the same time, be most valuable to the developing program of federal activities related to the environment. It incorporates and provides greater context for the suite of activities described in earlier years under the rubric Life and Earth's Environment. The key connector for BE activities is complexity – the idea that research on the individual components of environmental systems provides only limited information about the behavior of the systems themselves. Careful attention to the interplay among components is critical to obtaining the level of credible predictive information on which management and regulatory decisions must be made. It is also critical to advancing the fields of research that focus on environmental challenges." "Three overlapping and highly interactive categories of research activity describe NSF's ongoing efforts related to the environment: Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics; Environment and the Human Dimension; and Global Environmental Change. In all of these, resources are committed to development of measurement tools, observatories, databases, predictive models, international connections, integration of education, and other cross-cutting concerns." NSF Task Force on the Environment We have been asked by the NSF to forward this message: "The National Science Board (NSB) has created a Task Force on the Environment for the purpose of assisting the National Science Foundation (NSF) in defining the scope of its role in environmental research, education, and assessment, and in determining the best means of implementing activities related to this area. The Task Force is seeking input and feedback from concerned communities via a web site: http://www.nsf.gov/nsb/tfe/ Respondents are asked to e-mail their comments to <gTFE@nsf.gov>g by 28 February 1999 to ensure that the Task Force has an opportunity to consider them in the drafting of their report. In connection with this activity, there will be several public events: A public NSB Symposium on Environmental Research, Education and Assessment to be held at The Getty Center in Los Angeles, CA, on 17-18 February 1999. The Symposium has several objectives: It will provide an opportunity for the Board to learn about a variety of important environmental issues; it will promote a productive discussion of environmental research, education and assessment at NSF in the context of the larger federal strategy; and it will assist the Board in defining policy-level guidance for the NSF relating to its environment portfolio. A public Town Hall Meeting to be held at NSF in Arlington, VA, on 8 March 1999. For additional information and registration, please visit the Web site." Kevin Hutton, webmaster CNIE (Committee for National Institute on the Environment) http://www.cnie.org
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