NEON Outreach Coordinator, Marie Faust, will be giving a talk on the NEON outreach and engagement program for the CZNet Education and Outreach group's seminar series.
Talk Abstract: The National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) is a continental-scale observation facility funded by the National Science Foundation and operated by Battelle. NEON provides long-term, open access, ecological data from 81 terrestrial and aquatic field sites to better understand how U.S. ecosystems are changing. The integration of large-scale, open environmental data, such as provided by NEON, into community projects and programs provides an exciting opportunity for ecological science to contribute to society. Open data networks have the potential to increase access to high quality data for communities, allowing communities to use these datasets to address their priorities. In 2021, NEON launched two outreach programs aimed at building partnerships between NEON and local communities. These programs support NEON Field Ecologists with connecting communities with scientists, data, and resources to solve local environmental challenges. This talk will provide an introduction to NEON and its data and resources, as well as showcases the development, coordination, and outcomes of these outreach programs. Additionally, it outlines best practices for developing collaborative community projects with large-scale open data networks, and highlights challenges and future directions.
