Scientific Organizations Call for $1 Billion to Support Biodiversity Research and Education

The American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS), Natural Science Collections Alliance (NSC Alliance), and Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (SPNHC) joined forces to remind federal science officials of the important role biodiversity-related and biodiversity-enabled research play in helping to understand current global health and environmental problems, as well as for identifying methods to monitor, model, forecast, and mitigate future problems. The Extended Specimen Network, a community-informed research and education initiative developed by the Biodiversity Collections Network, was highlighted as the kind of large-scale, coordinated, data mobilization and integration initiative needed to advance research and education that furthers science and solves problems. In letters to the Office of Science and Technology Policy and the National Science Foundation, the groups called for a sustained investment: “A federal commitment of $1 billion toward these efforts over the next 10 years will make the United States the global leader in biological collections-enabled research, and spur new scientific discoveries that grow our economy, improve our public health and well-being, and increase our national security. This investment would support continued efforts to digitize biodiversity, particularly entomological collections which still require significant attention despite their importance to public health and food security. The investment would su...
Source: Public Policy Reports - Category: Biology Authors: Source Type: news