A publication by Birdlife International reports in Biological Conservation that several bird species have now gone extinct. Among them is the very rare and beautiful Spix Macaw. It is a sad day for nature.
CBS News shows a video “Adapt or Die” here
NSF FY 2019 budget to advance innovation, infrastructure
February 28, 2018
The National Science Foundation (NSF) released more detailed information regarding Donald Trump’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 NSF budget request to Congress.
The FY2019 budget request would represent a $7.47 billion investment in strengthening the nation’s economy, security and global leadership through research in cutting-edge science and engineering. At this proposed level of funding, steady with FY2017 congressional appropriations, NSF would continue its work supporting research that advances national priorities such as growth in manufacturing, defense and cybersecurity.
While continuing to support the programs and offices that help maintain the nation’s preeminence in innovation, NSF would accelerate the progress of its “10 Big Ideas for Future Investments” in FY2019, dedicating funding and resources to high-priority areas that integrate multiple fields of science and engineering and create opportunities to partner with industry, private foundations, other federal agencies and the education sector.
“NSF challenges the research community to innovate, and we hold our agency to the same standard of constantly improving and progressing,” said NSF Director France Córdova. “This budget request would allow NSF to build on the important work done by our directorates within individual fields by encouraging convergence among different disciplines in science and engineering and collaboration with partners in different sectors. Investments that incorporate such an approach will accelerate U.S. innovation.”
Through its Big Ideas Stewardship Funding Model, NSF would commit $30 million to each of six research-focused Big Ideas, for a total of $180 million. Those Big Ideas are: Harnessing the Data Revolution (HDR); The Future of Work at the Human Technology Frontier (FW-HTF); Windows on the Universe (WoU): The Era of Multi-messenger Astrophysics; The Quantum Leap (QL): Leading the Next Quantum Revolution; Understanding the Rules of Life (URoL): Predicting Phenotype; and Navigating the New Arctic (NNA).
The budget request also calls for NSF to invest $60 million in two Convergence Accelerators — new vehicles to leverage resources across the agency to support the most innovative science, pursuant to the HDR and FW-HTF Big Ideas. The remaining four Big Ideas, which focus on enhancing processes and practices to improve U.S. science and engineering, are emphasized in the budget request as well. This emphasis includes $20 million for NSF INCLUDES, which focuses on creating networks to broaden participation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
Other highlights under the budget request:
- The Antarctic Infrastructure Modernization for Science (AIMS) construction project would receive $103.7 million. NSF manages all U.S. activities on the continent as a single, integrated program, making Antarctic research possible for scientists supported by NSF and other U.S. agencies.
- Cybersecurity research would receive $160.6 million, supporting projects that protect and preserve cyber systems while ensuring preservation of individual privacy and usability.
- NSF Innovation Corps (I-Corps™), which works to bridge the gap between discoveries and commercialization of technologies, would receive $30 million.
- CyberCorps®: Scholarship for Service, which supports cybersecurity education and research at higher education institutions, would receive $55 million and engage undergraduate students, with a focus on veterans.
NSF’s annual budget would represent approximately 27 percent of the total federal budget for basic research conducted at U.S. colleges and universities — 60 percent when medical research supported by the National Institutes of Health is excluded.
In FY2019, NSF would expect to evaluate approximately 50,600 proposals through its competitive merit review process and make approximately 11,100 new competitive awards. NSF expects that over 93 percent of its FY2019 requested budget would be used to fund research and education grants and research infrastructure in the science and education communities.
What is HDR?
News from NSF:
What is Harnessing the Data Revolution?
Harnessing the Data Revolution (HDR) is one of the “10 Big Ideas for Future NSF Investments” and provides a profound opportunity to transform research across all fields of science and engineering through new insights gained from data.
Harnessing the Data Revolution aims to engage NSF’s research community in the pursuit of a cohesive, federated, national-scale approach to advance fundamental data-centric research and data-driven domain discoveries, build data infrastructure for research, and develop a 21st-century data-capable workforce.
Harnessing the Data Revolution builds on NSF’s legacy of data science investments. As the only federal agency supporting all fields of S&E, NSF is uniquely positioned to help ensure that our country’s future is one enriched and improved by data.
As part of HDR, NSF directorates and offices will also collaborate on new approaches to community data governance and research data lifecycles in alignment with NSF’s Public Access Plan.
Scientific Community Workshops
Community input is an integral part of growing NSF’s Harnessing the Data Revolution Big Idea. Below are a number of workshops that are aligned.
- Geoscience Digital Data Resource and Repository Service (GeoDaRRS) Workshop, August 7-9, 2018, Boulder, CO
- EarthCube 2018 All Hands Meeting Platform for Integration, June 6-8, 2018, Washington, DC
- Data Science Leadership Summit, March 26, 2018, Columbia, NY
- Real-Time Learning and Decision Making in Dynamical Systems, February 12-13, 2018, NSF, Alexandria, VA
- Enabling Computer and Information Science and Engineering Research and Education in the Cloud, Jan 8-9, 2018, Alexandria, VA
- Envisioning the Data Science Discipline: The Undergraduate Perspective, December 6-7, 2017, Washington DC
- Data Science Corps, December 7-8, 2017, Washington DC
- Workshop on Translational Data Science: Industry / Academic Confluence (TDS-IAC), Nov 13-14, 2017, Berkeley, CA
- Keeping Data Science Broad: Negotiating the Digital and Data Divide, Oct 30-Nov 1, 2017, Atlanta, GA
- 3rd Workshop on a Open Knowledge Network: enabling the community to build the network, October 4-5, 2017, Bethesda, MD
- NSF Workshop on Translational Data Science, June 26-27, 2017, Chicago, Il
Fattest States in the U.S.
An interesting link from OSU Today came out on the 2017 Fattest States in America. Mary Clusky (Associate Professor of Nutrition at OSU) has some great tips at the bottom of this article on eating healthy.
Corvallis Ski Swap
Corvallis Ski Swap is the 19-22 October at Benton County Fairgrounds. Buy, sell and/or swap ski gear and benefit these great organizations: The Swap benefits the Santiam Pass Ski Patrol and the Corvallis Mountain Rescue Unit.
Hours are 6-9pm on Friday and 9am – 6pm on Saturday.
2017 Nobel Prize in Physics
Congratulations to Kip Thorne, Barry Barish, (Caltech) and Rainer Weiss (MIT) on winning the Nobel Prize for the development of Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) which first detected gravitational waves predicted by Albert Einstein over a hundred years ago.
The LIGO Livingston observatory is located on LSU (my alma mater). LSU wrote an awesome press release. This is indeed an exciting time for LSU and research as a whole.
Nature Magazine wrote an article about a year ago on how LIGO detected gravitational waves and made history.
LSU’s new mascot
In August, LSU officially welcomed Mike VII. For those who don’t know, Mike, VI passed away earlier this year from cancer.
Mike the Tiger, VII
I admit that after Mike, VI’s passing I was of the strong opinion that LSU should adopt a human mascot to lead the teams onto the fields. I am a proponent of animal rights and essentially feel that all animals should be free (not in cages). I realize though that there are still times, when this just isn’t possible. Mike the VII, like his predecessor, is from a rescue facility. He’s never known freedom and it would be cruel to send him back to his ancestral home to fend for himself. LSU has done a fabulous job with his enclosure. Heck, it’s bigger than my house! Kudos, LSU.