{"id":3245,"date":"2010-04-28T10:48:27","date_gmt":"2010-04-28T14:48:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/?p=3245"},"modified":"2010-04-28T10:48:27","modified_gmt":"2010-04-28T14:48:27","slug":"scientists-visit-capitol-hill-to-talk-about-funding-for-research-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/2010\/04\/28\/scientists-visit-capitol-hill-to-talk-about-funding-for-research-education\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists visit Capitol Hill to talk about funding for research, education"},"content":{"rendered":"
This post contributed by Nadine Lymn, ESA Director of Public Affairs.<\/span><\/em><\/div>\n

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BESC CoFARM participants on Capitol Hill<\/span><\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

It may not seem as\u00a0satisfying to talk about as an environmental issue, but talking to policymakers about federal investment in science is an important task.\u00a0 That\u2019s what over twenty ecologists, field biologists, agronomists, animal scientists, and resource economists did last week.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In town for an event sponsored by the Biological Ecological Sciences Coalition <\/a>(BESC) and the Coalition on Funding Agricultural Research Missions <\/a>(CoFARM) these scientists from around the country visited over 50 congressional offices, from New York State to Hawaii, to highlight the paybacks from the nation\u2019s investment in science, and in particular, the biological and agricultural sciences.\u00a0 Highlighting the two agencies that fund the bulk of this research\u2013the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the US Department of Agriculture\u2019s Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI)\u2013participants\u00a0pointed to the\u00a0state and national benefits derived from this publically-funded research.\u00a0 For example:<\/span><\/p>\n

o Field station data recorded at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary showed the relationship between the decline and recovery of bald eagles and the use of organochlorines.<\/span><\/p>\n

o Data from the Sevilleta field station near Albuquerque helped scientists forecast the spread of Hantavirus and West Nile virus.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

o\u00a0University of Minnesota scientists discovered a bacteria \u201cbattery\u201d that produces electric current when attached to a conductive surface. This discovery is being applied to efficiently convert wastewater compounds into electricity.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

o\u00a0 Researchers\u00a0identified the genes that regulate temperature tolerance in wheat in order to identify frost-susceptible varieties. This has enabled breeders to develop hardier winter wheat, which is vital in light of growing pressure to increase global food production.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Overall, research funded by NSF and USDA AFRI advances understanding and helps the nation develop solutions to some of its biggest challenges, such as\u00a0invasive species, emerging infectious diseases, habitat loss, water availability and quality, food security, environmental degradation, and climate change.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>The budgets of both NSF\u2019s biology directorate (BIO) and USDA\u2019s AFRI have been essentially flat over the last 10 years, when adjusted for inflation (excluding boosts from the 2009 economic stimulus package).\u00a0 NSF BIO provides 68 percent of federal grant support for fundamental biological research at US universities and nonprofit research centers, while AFRI\u2019s extramural grants fund research in plant health, food safety, renewable energy, and agricultural economics.\u00a0 For fiscal year 2011, NSF is requesting\u00a0$7.4 billion while\u00a0AFRI hopes for a significant boost that would put its funding at\u00a0$429 million.\u00a0\u00a0During their meetings last week, the\u00a0scientists expressed their hope that Congress would do its best to meet these budget goals.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Dr. Knute Nadelhoffer (right), an ecologist at the University of Michigan, meets with Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI).<\/span><\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

\u00a0Before the scientists hit the Hill they heard presentations from\u00a0agency and congressional staff.\u00a0 The congressional staff\u00a0member gave the group a pop quiz of sorts, asking them what they needed to remember to say during the course of their meetings.\u00a0\u00a0They knew the answer: to thank Congress (and the American public) for supporting the nation\u2019s research and science education enterprise.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Scientists listen to Dixon Butler, staffer with the House appropriations committee.<\/span><\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post contributed by Nadine Lymn, ESA Director of Public Affairs. BESC CoFARM participants on Capitol Hill It may not seem as\u00a0satisfying to talk about as an environmental issue, but talking to policymakers about federal investment in science is an important task.\u00a0 That\u2019s what over twenty ecologists, field biologists, agronomists, animal scientists, and resource economists did last week.\u00a0 In town…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,48],"tags":[712,700,713,701,714,715,716],"class_list":["post-3245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ecology-in-policy","category-ecology-and-society","tag-agricultural-sciences","tag-besc","tag-biological-sciences","tag-cofarm","tag-nsf-bio","tag-science-funding","tag-usda-afri"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3245\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}