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.
The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSPT) has issued a request for information to help improve the effectiveness of federal scientific integrity policies. Specifically, the OSTP seeks stakeholder input on the effectiveness of current federal scientific integrity policies and needed areas of improvement, practices agencies could adopt to improve scientific integrity, and […]
The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) is soliciting stakeholder feedback on how it can carry out its statutory responsibility to ensure the availability of museum, library, and information services adequate to meet the essential information, education, research, economic, cultural, and civic needs of the people of the United States. IMLS is developing a five-year […]
NSC Alliance has joined nearly 50 scientific societies and organizations in calling on Congress to lead with science to understand and address the effects of climate change. Leading with science will be critical to understanding and addressing the effects of climate change, and the entire scientific community will play a role in addressing this emergency, […]
A new article published in PLoS Pathogens argues for leveraging natural history biorepositories for the proactive detection and mitigation of emerging infectious diseases. Natural history museum biorepositories form the backbone of a critically needed, decentralized, global network for zoonotic pathogen surveillance, yet this infrastructure remains marginally developed, underutilized, underfunded, and disconnected from public health initiatives, […]
Under President Biden’s budget request for fiscal year (FY) 2022, federal support for the Smithsonian Institution would grow by $69 million or 7 percent to $1.1 billion. This increase includes the congressionally mandated pay raise, funds to continue major renovation projects at the National Air and Space Museum and the Smithsonian Institution Building, and support […]
The President has proposed increasing the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) budget by 20 percent in fiscal year (FY) 2022 and creating a new commercialization focused directorate at the science agency. Overall, NSF would receive $10.2 billion, which is $1.7 billion above the FY 2021 level enacted by Congress. The President proposes investing $50 billion over […]
On June 8, 2021, the U.S. Senate voted 68-32 to pass the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (S. 1260), formerly referred to as the Endless Frontier Act. The legislative package would authorize $100 billion over five years for research and development at the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Department of Energy (DOE). The bipartisan […]
Starting in mid-June, the alliance for biodiversity knowledge will convene a follow up to the consultation that was held in February and March to converge the ideas behind two related but distinct concepts: the Digital Specimen, proposed by the Europe-based Distributed System of Scientific Collections (DiSSCo), and the Extended Specimen, which emerged from the Biological Collections Network (BCoN). Phase 2 will […]
On May 28, 2021, President Joe Biden released his much awaited budget request for fiscal year (FY) 2022, calling for major investments in the nation’s infrastructure and social safety net programs. The budget framework also proposes large budget increases for several federal science agencies, including the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institutes of Health […]
The Natural Science Collections Alliance has joined a group of scientific societies in providing recommendations to lawmakers on legislation pertaining to the National Science Foundation (NSF) that assures the federal government is making the investments necessary to strengthen America’s economic competitiveness, ensure our national security, and allow us to tackle the significant challenges that lie […]