OOS 4-8
Assignable assets: Using NEON infrastructure to advance continental scale ecology
NEON will provide a variety of resources for researchers, educators, and others. Primary among these is the data from the NEON sites. These data will be available to anyone through the NEON data portal. In addition to data, certain other components of the NEON physical infrastructure will be available for use by researchers and others in support of individual research projects or other appropriate activities. This presentation describes what these resources are and how they may be requested. The resources currently include:
- One of the NEON Airborne Observation Platforms
- The ~ten truck-mounted Mobile Deployment Platforms
- Placement of new sensors or instruments on NEON towers or other infrastructure
- Access to archived specimens and samples
These resources collectively are referred to as “assignable assets”. NEON will encourage the use of NEON assignable assets once they are available, but all requests must go through a formal approval process that normally will involve an evaluation of both scientific merit and technical and logistical feasibility. Once a request is approved the asset is, effectively, assigned to the requester for the approved use.
Results/Conclusions
For each assignable asset NEON is preparing a written plan describing how requests will be handled, including how they should be submitted, how they are evaluated, and what criteria are used in evaluating them. The scientific merit of requests will be evaluated by NSF or another funding agency, normally through the agency’s review of a research proposal that incorporates the use of the asset in the proposed project. The technical and logistical feasibility of a request will be evaluated by NEON. Requests will be submitted through a web interface that includes instructions on what information must be submitted.
NEON does not have funds to pay for costs associated with use of assignable assets. The requester’s funding organization will provide funds to cover the costs to NEON. Most requests will be associated with projects that are evaluated through scheduled agency review processes. Target of opportunity requests, associated with unexpected environmental events, will receive expedited evaluations by NSF and NEON. The assignable assets will not be routinely available until the Observatory is fully operational. Until that time some requests may be approved if they can serve as useful proof of concept exercises.