The National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) is a National Science Foundation-funded, distributed observatory that represents the agency’s first major facilities investment in biology.  The vision of NEON arose from the ecological community as a means of answering some of the most exciting and challenging questions in continental-scale ecology. NEON will provide data, infrastructure and standardized methodologies to support ecological research and environmental education throughout the United States. Once fully operational, NEON’s infrastructure will include observational and instrumented measurements from 47 terrestrial and 34 aquatic sites in 20 domains, archived soil and organismal samples (e.g. beetles and mosquitos), the Airborne Observation Platforms (AOP), and Mobile Deployment Platforms (MDPs) that can be used to support PI-driven research.

NEON will collect data for 30 years after construction of the observatory’s infrastructure is complete in 2017. In this workshop, we will explore ideas for operating the observatory, including topics such as reviewing and updating collection protocols, sensors, and data processing protocols; involving the scientific community in the collection of NEON data; and working with NEON staff to understand and use NEON data. Through a dynamic discussion, we intend to gather a diversity of ideas to help frame the conceptual plan for operation of the National Ecological Observatory.