The 2017 fiscal year spending bill approved by the House Appropriations Committee for Commerce, Justice, Science (CJS) and Related Agencies reduced the amount of money the National Science Foundation (NSF) would receive — a $57 million decrease over FY 2016. As a side note, this bill again rescinds NOAA funding related to climate research and its National Oceans Policy.
Consequently, the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced that it was indefinitely suspending funding for the Collections in Support of Biological Research (CSBR) Program which helps maintain biological specimen collections such as herbaria and seed collections. In the past, the NSF has been one of only a few public agencies that provides funds for the care, organization, maintenance and cataloging of biological collections. Maintenance of herbaria physical collections is crucial since researchers depend upon these specimens for studying climate change and how native plant species have been evolving.
NSF is re-evaluating the CSBR Program. If you wish to comment to on their funding suspension, email.
What Good Is a Library Full of Dead Plants? by Robinson Meyer
Our Natural History, Endangered by Richard Conniff
Thanks, Emily Roberson for bringing this change in funding to my attention.
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