National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) Inc. passes major planning milestone
National Ecological Observatory Network, Inc. recently passed a Preliminary Design Review (PDR) by the National Science Foundation (NSF) of their plan to construct a $384 million continental-scale climate impacts observatory, a major milestone in the design and execution of the project.
Once operational, NEON will provide critical ecological data that will help us understand how climate change, land use change and invasive species impact the nation's ecosystems. These data, in part, will allow scientists to forecast the effects of climate change on our natural resources.
The ability to anticipate patterns of change and the future state of the nation's ecosystems will support new White House initiatives to proactively reduce our vulnerability and increase our resilience to ongoing climate change.
"NEON is poised to start the work of revolutionizing how we use science to make major environmental decisions, and we can't wait to get started on the next phase," said David Schimel, CEO of NEON.
The project will now move forward to Final Design Review (FDR), slated to occur this fall. If NEON passes FDR, it will then enter the $384 million phase to construct 60 networked observatory sites around the country.
Completion of PDR represents the culmination of over five years of hard work to design and document Observatory systems. The collaboration undertaken to complete this work was exceptional. NEON, Inc. staff worked to complete the project in tandem with hundreds of scientists, educators and federal officials who participated on committees and review teams.
During PDR, NEON, Inc. teams presented detailed project scope, budgets, designs, risks, and project management strategies for construction and operations of the NEON project to a panel of reviewers convened by the NSF. The panelists evaluated project plans and outlined issues the NEON project must address prior to Final Design Review.
Source: National Ecological Observatory Network
