Fwd: tree-of-life database project

[Arlin Stoltzfus]

this is what I received from Maureen Kearney of NSF

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Kearney, Maureen M" <mkea...@nsf.gov>

Date: December 2, 2009 4:41:05 PM EST

To: Arlin Stoltzfus <stol...@umbi.umd.edu>

Subject: RE: tree-of-life database project

Dear Arlin,

NSF's support of database projects and web-based infrastructure is
located in another division - the Division of Biological Infrastructure.
Here is a link to their webpage:
http://www.nsf.gov/div/index.jsp?div=DBI.


Best regards,
Maureen Kearney


__________________________________
Maureen Kearney
Program Director
Systematic Biology and Biodiversity Inventories Cluster
Division of Environmental Biology
National Science Foundation
4201 Wilson Blvd., Suite 635
Arlington, VA 22230
Tel:  703-292-7187
Email:  mkea...@nsf.gov

-----Original Message-----
From: Arlin Stoltzfus [mailto:stol...@umbi.umd.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, December 02, 2009 4:25 PM
To: Kearney, Maureen M
Subject: tree-of-life database project

Maureen Kearney--

Hello.  I recently became aware that the ToLWeb (www.tolweb.org)  
project has been seeking new leadership, and I'm exploring the  
opportunities for forming a consortium that could work with ToLWeb  
stakeholders to develop a vision for the future, and then to seek  
funding for that vision.  The original conception of ToLWeb, according  
to its founder, was

- to have a database serving the community-consensus of the  
phylogenetic tree of all of life
- to "decorate" that tree with information about clades and individual  
species
- to link the nodes to other information available on the Internet
- to serve both the needs of the research community and the general  
public
- to present web pages for each species and significant clade and on  
Earth

The Encyclopedia of Life project has taken over part of the last goal  
(having a web page for every species), but I think that the ToLWeb  
community (which includes curator-contributors, each of whom works on  
one "branch" of the tree of life) is still committed to the other goals.

Can you tell me what funding opportunities for this type of project  
are available via NSF?

How does NSF envision the survival of a vital infrastructure project  
like ToLWeb, which may provide a testbed for innovation, but also  
requires maintenance funding in order to continue serving the research  
community?

Thanks for your help.  I'm available to talk by phone during regular  
business hours if that would be easier.

Arlin
-------
Arlin Stoltzfus (stol...@umbi.umd.edu)
Fellow, CARB; Adj. Assoc. Prof., UMBI; Research Biologist, NIST
CARB, 9600 Gudelsky Drive, Rockville, MD
tel: 240 314 6208; web: www.molevol.org