Earlier this week, the NSC Alliance learned that the National Science Foundation would place the Collections in Support of Biological Research (CSBR) on hiatus for fiscal year 2017.
The NSC Alliance is deeply concerned by this announcement. In 2012, the NSC Alliance worked with other national organizations to oppose a proposal at that time to convert the CSBR program to a biennial competition.
Since learning of the announcement regarding the FY 2017 program, the NSC Alliance has been working to learn more about this plan. A response to NSF is being drafted and will be shared with NSC Alliance members.
The official NSF programmatic response to inquiries about the CSBR program is:
“The Collections in Support of Biological Research (CSBR) Program has been placed on hiatus for Fiscal Year 2017 by the NSF Directorate for Biological Sciences. During this time the program has been asked to evaluate its value to the research and education community. As part of this evaluation we welcome feedback from any stakeholders, including individuals, institutions, and professional societies. Please register comments through the CSBR email alias (DBICSBR@nsf.gov) and/or on the DBI blog (https://dbinsfblog.wordpress.com/). During this period NSF’s commitments to all active CSBR awards will be honored.