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.
Representatives Chaka Fattah (D-PA) and Frank Wolf (R-VA) are the recipients of the 2012 Biological and Ecological Sciences Coalition (BESC) Award. The honor is given to congressional leaders who have demonstrated a commitment to advancing science policy and research. “Our community of biological scientists greatly appreciates the years of leadership by Representatives Wolf and Fattah […]
The Department of the Interior is proposing several minor changes to the regulations that implement the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAPGRA). The proposed changes would correct minor inaccuracies and inconsistencies in the regulation. One example of a proposed revision is adding known lineal descendents to the list of parties who are to […]
Today, the NSC Alliance submitted testimony to the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies. The testimony supported $3.5 million in new funding for the Department of the Interior’s Cultural and Scientific Collections program. The FY 2013 budget request would implement a multi-year action plan to address recommendations made by the Department’s Inspector […]
Periodically, Natural Science Collections Alliance (NSC Alliance) member institutions request information about what the NSC Alliance has recently accomplished. The following provides a summary of some of the key activities and accomplishments of the NSC Alliance for the period of January 2011 to April 2012. Worked with other scientific organizations to demonstrate grassroots support for […]
Today, NSC Alliance submitted testimony to the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies. The testimony was in support of $3.5 million in new funding for the Department of the Interior’s Cultural and Scientific Collections program. The FY 2013 budget request would implement a multi-year action plan to address recommendations made by the […]
A new study published online 18 March 2012 in Nature Climate Change uses data from the Pliocene epoch to test how accurately climate models can predict future climate trends. The Pliocene epoch is the time period from 3.3 to 3.0 million years ago, and is believed to resemble most closely, in terms of “sustained global […]
Ten scientific organizations have joined together to sponsor a briefing for congressional policymakers on the economic returns associated with Federal government funding for scientific research. The briefing, “Research That Pays Off: The Economic Benefits of Federally Funded R&D†will be held on Friday, March 16, 2012. Two sessions have been planned. The first session is […]
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 […]