Dear Colleagues: The Endgame of NEON Design

NEON, Inc. Board Chair Jim MacMahon and CEO David Schimel update the community on recent NEON milestones and the work ahead: Responses to the Request for Information, “tiger team” input on design details, the NSF RFI Workshop, the NEON site selection meeting, and the all-important Project Design Review in Spring, 2007.

Dear Colleague:

The work of preparing NEON for its Project Design Review (PDR) in Spring 2007 continues at a rapid pace. We wanted to report to you on the recent activities that are now shaping NEON and will ultimately lead to a final design and MREFC funding from NSF.

After a national search, NEON Board Chair Jim MacMahon announced that Dr. David Schimel, Senior Scientist with the National Center for Atmospheric Research, accepted the position of NEON CEO. Dr. Schimel was formally introduced in November, 2006, at the NSF Conceptual Design Review of NEON in La Jolla, California. Members of the NEON design team made presentations on all aspects of project planning to the CDR panel, and panel members responded with detailed recommendations on NEON science and education, budget and staffing, performance requirements, major system components, cyberinfractructure interfaces, etc. NEON, Inc. will be carefully weighing this input in our discussions and revision of the NEON design that we will present at the PDR.

NEON has just enlisted the help of about 45 colleagues from the ecological community in order to help prepare for the Project Design Review. At present, six “tiger teams” of experts are closely reviewing key details of network design. Four of the teams are focused on specific NEON data-collection components: Tower Systems, Fundamental Sentinel Unit, Airborne Observation Platform, and the Land Use Analysis Package. The other two teams are working on Education and Site Permitting. All tiger teams will report in a preliminary way soon and then in more detail after they see the community responses to the Request for Information (RFI).

The NEON Project Office has received more than 50 detailed RFI responses from the community for using NEON observational resources at core wildland sites and gradients. We are aware of the huge effort made by our colleagues nationally to respond with the best science. We will match this incredible goodwill effort with the most rigorous and open follow-on process possible. Please remember that the RFI responses are not proposals and no funding will be awarded in response to these submissions. However, the RFI responses and evaluation, together with the ISEP, are the drivers of this final stage of the NEON design process, the NEON Project Execution Plan and the eventual NEON MREFC award.

NEON has delivered the RFI submissions to NSF, and in early February the Foundation will conduct a formal RFI workshop hosted by the USGS EROS Data Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. This evaluation is expected to produce a rich body of ideas and information that will enable a final deployment of NEON infrastructure. At the end of the USGS meeting, NEON, Inc. will receive a set of recommendations from NSF to use in refining the network design specifics.

During the week of February 12, the NEON, Inc. design team will meet in Boulder, Colorado. The team will include NEON Project Office Staff, tiger team chairs, and the chairs of NEON’s advisory committees. We will take the RFIs and the RFI evaluation report evaluations and from the material provided select a national network of core and relocatable sites to include in the Project Execution Plan for NSF review in late spring. The NEON technical team will make maximum use of the community’s input and will craft a plan that accomplishes as many of the ISEP goals as possible, taking advantage of all possible synergisms. The NEON Board will vote on the plan developed by the project office technical team in late February. Then, in early March, NEON will announce to the community the proposed national design that will be peer-reviewed at the Preliminary Design Review, in spring 07.

Much remains to be done, including costing, the development of critical aspects of the commissioning and utilization phases, and the development of a NEON data policy. We will soon be naming members of the NEON Science, Technology, and Education Committee (STEAC), which will advise NEON on priorities, strategy, data processing, and education/outreach issues. We will also name members of the NEON Program Advisory Committee (PAC). This body will advise on how the facility is utilized, including allocation of mobile and relocatable equipment, use of experimental set-aside areas, and tasking of the NEON airborne facilities. In addition, the Program Advisory Committee will make recommendations on needs for training and educating the scientists and technicians who will use NEON, and will also oversee the development and application of NEON’s data policy.

Finally, we want to thank all of you for your continued support throughout this long and complex planning process. NEON has come so far because of the hard work and honest critiques from so many members of our community. We encourage any and all to communicate any concerns and ideas directly to either of us, and we will continue to solicit community input and participation as the program goes forward.

Posted by djohnson on Tuesday January 9, at 3PM.