Natural Science Collections Alliance
Our members are part of an international community of museums, botanical gardens, herbariums, universities and other institutions that house natural science collections and utilize them in research, exhibitions, academic and informal science education, and outreach activities.
On 5 March 2012, Dr. John Wingfield, head of the Biological Sciences Directorate at the National Science Foundation, responded to concerns raised by the collections community about the Collections in Support of Biological Research (CSBR) program. NSC Alliance and several other scientific organizations wrote to Wingfield in late February regarding NSF’s proposal to change the […]
The National Park Service is seeking public comments regarding the collection of information from museums about Native American cultural items in their collections. The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) requires museums to compile certain information regarding Native American cultural items in their possession or control, and provide that information to lineal descendants […]
iDigBio, the National Science Foundation funded National Resource for Advancing Digitization of Biological Collections, is organizing a workshop on specimen digitization to be held on 12 July 2012. The workshop will occur the day after the Botany 2012 conference. The workshop is designed to introduce current and future biological and paleontological specimen collections staff to […]
Determining Cultural Affiliation Review the tools and best practices for determining cultural affiliation as part of the requirements of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). Each Federal agency and museum with control over Native American human remains must identify cultural affiliation if it can do so on the basis of reasonable belief. […]
On Friday, 24 February 2012, the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) Research Board announced the selection of Dr. Charles “Chuck” A. Wilson to serve as the GoMRI Chief Science Officer. The Chief Science Officer is a new position created by the Research Board to provide scientific and research advice and leadership to the GoMRI. […]
The fiscal year (FY) 2013 budget request for the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) would fund IMLS at $232.0 million, the same as the FY 2012 enacted level. Museum services would receive $29.4 million, which is unchanged from the current fiscal year. Funding for Research, Analysis, Evaluation and Data Collection, a budget line […]
On 24 February 2012 the NSC Alliance, Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections, Association of Science Museum Directors, American Institute of Biological Sciences, and the American Association of Museums wrote to the National Science Foundation (NSF) regarding the agency’s proposed budget for support of scientific collections. Although the President’s recently released fiscal year […]
President Obama released a $3.8 trillion budget plan for fiscal year (FY) 2013 on 13 February 2012. According to the White House, the budget proposal would cut deficits by $4 trillion over the next decade and would avoid the $1.2 trillion in automatic spending cuts mandated by the Budget Control Act signed into law in […]
The Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) is offering a $50,000 prize for the winner of the EOL Education Innovation Challenge. This international competition aims to foster development of educational software tools, services, or games using EOL content. The competition will award funding to the most scalable and innovative applications. Target audiences can include the general public, […]
On 13 February 2012, President Obama released his official budget request for fiscal year (FY) 2013. According to the White House, the spending plan would cut the nation’s deficit by $4 trillion over the next decade and would avoid the $1.2 trillion in automatic spending cuts mandated by the debt limit deal reached last August. […]