National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis is a research center for the science of ecology, located in Santa Barbara, California, USA. Better known by its acronym NCEAS (pronounced N-seece), it opened in May, 1995, funded by the US National Science Foundation, the State of California, and the University of California, Santa Barbara.
NCEAS supports three main activities, all aimed at scientific research in ecology and conservation biology that is based on synthesizing existing data. First, groups of 4-20 people specializing in a particular research theme are funded to meet at NCEAS and work together on a chosen project. NCEAS supports 85-90 such meetings per year, including 500-800 scientists. The second NCEAS activity is the support of postdoctoral researchers, who can receive salary support to reside at NCEAS for 2-3 years and carry out research. Finally, NCEAS supports senior scientists to take sabbaticals from their home institutions to focus on a research topic within NCEAS' scope. All visiting scientists are funded through a competitive review process: whether groups or individuals, scientists submit research objectives and an NCEAS board of reviewers determines which merit support.
Besides the three main activities, NCEAS serves as a host institution for additional projects in ecology or conservation biology that are funded by external (ie, non-NCEAS) funds. Ecoinformatics, or computer methods for storing and accessing data relevant to ecology and conservation, and ecosystem management are two projects based at NCEAS.
The origin of the center can be traced to the perception among ecologists that important research themes span wide regions and long time periods. For example, research on marine fisheries must consider information from wide stretches of the ocean, and studies of long-lived forest communities must span decades. Recognizing that research in such areas cannot be accomplished by a single scientist working at one location, the National Science Foundation decided to create a center whose mission was to foster synthetic research. In 1994, the Foundation designed a competition and entertained proposals to build such a center, and the University of California, Santa Barbara, was awarded $12.5 million to run the center for five years. Dr. William Murdoch served as the NCEAS interim director for one year, then Dr. James Reichman became director in September, 1997, and remains director in 2007. Subsequent grants were awarded to UC Santa Barbara to continue NCEAS in 2001 ($16.6 million) and 2006 ($18.5 million).
The NCEAS web site (http://www.nceas.ucsb.edu) includes descriptions of all sponsored research projects, short biographies of participating scientists, information on how to submit proposals, and an ecology page aimed at K–12 education.
