Infrastructure for Biology at Regional to Continental Scales
The IBRCS Program, an effort by the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS), was launched in August 2002 with support from the National Science Foundation. It had the following goals:
To help the biological and the larger scientific community—within and beyond the AIBS membership—to determine the needs and means for increased physical infrastructure and connectivity in observational platforms, data collection and analysis, and database in both field biology and other more general areas of biology and science.
To provide for communications within this community and with NSF regarding the development and focus of relevant infrastructure and data-networking projects.
To facilitate the synergistic connection of diverse researchers and research organizations that can exploit the power of a large-scale biological observatory program.
To disseminate information about biological observatory programs and other relevant infrastructure and data-networking projects to the scientific community, the public policy community, the media, and the general public.
The program was led by a working group comprising biologists elected from the AIBS membership of scientific societies and organizations and appointed from the scientific community at-large. It was assisted by a variety of technical advisors. The working group was assembled during the summer and fall of 2002.
The program had a special focus on the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON), which is a major NSF initiative to establish a national platform for integrated studies and monitoring of natural processes at all spatial scales, time scales, and levels of biological organization.
Jeffrey Goldman, PhD, was director of the IBRCS program. He and Richard O’Grady, PhD, AIBS executive director, were co-principal investigators under the grant.