Rationale During the past several years, the scientific community has worked to develop and advocate for NEON. During the past several months, however, issues have been identified that have helped clarify what must be addressed for NEON to move forward successfully. Perhaps the overarching issue is that NEON must continue its development along the lines of other large-scale infrastructure projects. Because nothing quite like NEON has ever been developed by biologists, it should be helpful to model the NEON effort after large-scale projects in other disciplines. Much of what follows builds upon discussion at the recent NEON Coordination and Implementation Conference—which brought together experts that manage large-scale infrastructure projects and NEON stakeholders to discuss how to form, manage, and govern NEON—and at a recent workshop on best-practices for managing such large scientific facility projects.NEON Jiquan Chen, Univ of Toledo

Organizational chart shows relationship between steering committee, task forces, and staff. One associate staff person works with three taskforces. Staff director oversees associates and works directly with steering committee, which receives reports from taskforces

Scientific Task Forces (STF) Biodiversity, species composition, and ecosystem functioning Ecological aspects of biogeochemical cycles Ecological implications of climate change Ecology and evolution of infectious disease Invasive species Land use and habitat alteration

Kellogg Biological Station (May 12-13, 2004) U of Michigan Biological Station (October 2004) U of Notre Dame Environmental Research Center (Spring 2005) Future Meetings/Workshops of GLEON

Regional NEON Groups

5 2