 Hello, everyone. Thank you for taking time out of your day and joining us on this webinar on the National Ecological Observatory Network's Signable Assets Program. Before we begin, I want to say that NEON welcomes contributions from everyone who shares our values of unity, creativity, collaboration, excellence, and appreciation. This is outlined in our Code of Conduct. These guidelines apply to NEON staff as well as anyone participating in any NEON program. Our Code of Conduct can be found on the NEON website or through this QR code. We will also provide a link in the chat. I want to also mention that we are recording this webinar and we will post a recording on the NEON website. We will also post a PDF of the presentation as well as any links mentioned or shown in the presentation. We have a disabled chat for the participants, but we will use the chat for displaying any web links. If you have any questions or comments, please use the Q&A, and we will get to questions at the end of the presentation. In the Q&A, if you want your questions to be posted anonymously, please check the box to submit your question anonymously. There are three of us on the panel today, myself, Samantha Chromatis and Mike Sanclements. I'll start by introducing myself. Then I'll ask Samantha to introduce herself and Mike to finally introduce himself. My name is Ramel Zulueta and I've been on the NEON program for 10 years. I joined NEON in 2013 during the construction phase and was part of the Terrestrial Instrumented Systems Team, which focus on sensors and sensor subsystems that are now part of every NEON site. A special aspect of my position at the time was interfacing with the construction team and ensuring that all sites were built with minimal impact to the science. This also allowed me to visit nearly every NEON site prior to and as they were being built. I've had the privilege to work on all aspects of NEON in the fall of 2018. I took lead of the NEON Asideable Assets Program and have been leading the program ever since. Samantha, would you like to introduce yourself? Hello, I am Samantha Chromatis. I support the NEON Asideable Assets Program as a program analyst. I first joined NEON in 2014 as a temporary field technician in DOA Alabama. From there, I went on to work in our Kansas and Colorado domains before starting this position about two years ago. And I have just thoroughly enjoyed working with researchers and finding ways to use NEON resources to support their own projects. Great. Thank you, Samantha. Mike, would you like to introduce yourself? Sure. Hi, everyone. I'm Mike Sanclements. I have been with NEON for going on 12 years. I led the terrestrial instrument science team for much of the construction as well as the commissioning and transition to operations of the NEON project. I now serve as the research initiatives lead. I'm involved in a number of different initiatives throughout Patel and the NEON program, including assignable assets, as well as other programs. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mike. So as you can see between the three of us, we have many years of experience with NEON and all three of us are committed to and deeply involved in the assignable assets program that we'll be presenting you today. For this presentation, I'd like to provide a quick summary of what NEON is, so an overview. I'd like to go over the assignable assets program. I'd like to show you some of the growth of the program. What is needed to request research support from the assignable assets program, the request process. And then I'd like to show you some example projects. And then as well as go over some opportunities and resources before moving to the Q&A. Now I want to, excuse me. And so just, I'd like to go ahead and give a overview of what NEON is. It should be a link to the main NEON website in the chat. The National Ecological Observatory Network or NEON is a continental scale, long-term observatory fully funded by the National Science Foundation and operated by Patel. Data collection measures and instrumentation are standardized across the observatory and provides a standardized and reliable framework for research and data interoperability. All NEON data are freely available for all through the NEON data portal. NEON is unique and it's the first of its kind. The observatory distributed across continental United States, including Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico. NEON collects data over broad spatial and temporal scales to enable the understanding of key drivers and responses of environmental change. NEON has 81 total field sites, 47 terrestrial, and 34 aquatic sites distributed throughout 20 eco-climatic domains. NEON provides a highly coordinate system of fair and open data for monitoring critical ecological and environmental properties. And all our 180 plus data products are freely available to everyone. The intent of the NSF is for NEON to be operational for 30 years. NEON began full operation in 2019, though as the observatory was being built and some sites and data became available, some of those data products are actually available on the data portal as early as 2016. NEON data are collected using three different systems, automated instrument systems, which include meteorological and eddy covance instrumentation from the towers, phenocams, soil sensors, and ground and surface water stations. Observational sampling, which encompasses all the observations and physical samples typically collected by scientists and technicians in the field. These include data, for example, from small mammal trapping, pigs, mosquitoes, and ground beetle sampling, vegetation structure, etc. and the airborne observation platform. This is remote sensing using light aircraft carrying instrument payloads to gather LiDAR photos and high-respectful data. All NEON data are freely available on the NEON data portal at data.neonscience.org and the link will also be posted in the chat. The data portal is where one would explore and download any of the 180 plus data products. Access to data is directly from the data portal or through an application programming interface or API. Some of the data products are also available at some of our partner organizations. For example, our eddy covance flux data packages are also available through the Ameriflux website. The data portal also provides access to our data product user guides, detailed protocols, other important documents, and any data updates and news. Here's a neat summary of graph that we'll call NEON by the numbers. As of this month, we have about 600 total staff, 320 plus that support the observatory full-time. And then seasonally, we hire an additional 250 to 290 main staff to help with the field sampling and data collection. You can see what we have of our physical infrastructure as well as the observatory site locations across the US. There are over 180 data products. I believe the exact number is now 182. And we have over 400,000 samples to date with about 100,000 samples added per year. There are over 600 publications using NEON data or resources, and we do know that more are forthcoming. To close out the NEON overview, we here at NEON say that good science is built on good data. But I like to think that good science is built on good data and creativity. It's things like the Assignable Assets Program, which allows the community, you, the users of NEON, to bring their creativity to the observatory to ultimately move science forward. So the Assignable Assets Program is one of those tools which we'll be talking about today, which allows you to interject your creativity into the observatory. I'd like to now provide an overview of the Assignable Assets Program itself. There's a link to the website and a program FAQ in the chat. The Assignable Assets Program makes available certain components of NEON's infrastructure, scientists, engineers, field ecologists, and technicians to members of the community to support the open research or other activities. Assignable Assets Program has several guiding principles. It's designed to leverage NEON infrastructure for community engagement. Projects in the program are evaluated to avoid conflicts with NEON's mission and scope, as well as avoiding interference with current NEON measurements or sampling. Project support is on a cost-recoverable basis. This is because we cannot use NEON operational budget for any external projects. So any support costs need to be recovered from the investigator's grant or funding source. I want to note that this is the funding model from the NSF for NEON. Other NSF research infrastructures has different funding models. We have a process for evaluating requests that include a feasibility and technical review, a thorough cost analysis, and pricing of the project. And if funded, our project is ready to be implemented, establishing a contract or work agreement. Assignable Assets Program is categorized into eight services that we provide and support. I've listed them here, but in the next four slides, I will provide additional detail of each. Starting on the left side, we have the observational sampling infrastructure, OSI, the sensory infrastructure, SI, our airborne observation platform, AOP, and our mobile deployment platform, MDP. And the right side, we have access samples request, ESR, field site coordination, FSC, subject matter expertise, SME, and letters of support or collaboration, LOS or LOC. So please take note of the acronyms as I'll probably use them frequently and interchangeably with the titles throughout this presentation. The observational sampling infrastructure or OSI, this is access to our field sampling plots, as well as our trained field ecologists for additional sampling or data collection. The sensor infrastructure or SI, this is our physical infrastructure at the sites, the tower, the instruments, access to power communications, our solar arrays, and our aquatics infrastructure. The airborne observation platform or the AOP, these are our twin-autor aircraft. They are usually kept busy flying the NEON sites, but users can request flight surveys using the NEON aircraft in its remote sensing platform, either at existing NEON locations or at their own research locations. We have two aircraft and NEON has three instrument payloads. The MDP or the mobile deployment platforms, these are essentially mobile NEON tower sites with a subset of terrestrial and aquatic sensors that can be deployed to remote locations to collect NEON-like data. We have five MDPs that are ready to deploy. Access sample requests or ESR. At some NEON sites, the observational sampling generates an excess of samples that are needed for archiving or analysis. Researchers can request access to these access samples before they are disposed of. Field site coordination or FSC. Field site coordination occurs when researchers want to do research at or adjacent to the NEON sites, but won't be accessing our sampling plots, physical infrastructure, or require any labor or field support. Field site coordination also includes researchers wanting access to our sites. NEON does not own the land where NEON sites are located. We facilitate contact between the researcher and the landowner so they may be able to get their own research permits or site access permissions. Subject matter expertise or subject matter experts, also known as SMEs or SMEs. The assignable assets program is more than just the physical infrastructure, mobile platforms and our sites, what truly makes a program successful is our professional field ecologists, scientists, and engineers. They all contribute to the continental scale data collection, processing, and distribution, and our field ecologists are fully trained in NEON protocols and equipment. They can conduct field sampling or data collection and they can perform equipment installations and maintenance. So NEON personnel can also provide subject matter expertise in various subjects and provide support that is in addition to our standard NEON user support. Letters support or letters of collaboration. I'm sure everyone here is familiar with these and we do handle requests for letters to the assignable assets program. I will note that if your proposal is only using data from the data portal or other resources NEON already provides, like educational materials or training videos, you don't need a letter support for your proposal. However, if you would still like one, we'll be happy to work with you to get one. There are a couple of unique NEON resources associated with the assignable assets program. The NEON Megapit and Distributed Soil Archives. These are accessible soil archives from the initial characterizations of all the NEON terrestrial sites. And the NEON Biorepository, which is curated by Arizona State University. The Biorepository houses the long term storage and curation of most NEON samples and specimens, including voucher specimens, whole organisms, tissues, and samples that are collected and processed for chemistry, disease, and genetics. The website is linked in the chat if people are interested in exploring what the Biorepository has to offer. The NEON assignable assets program is truly customer focused. There are three main phases when an investigator has an assignable assets project. There's phase one or the planning phase. This is understanding the project and the support needed, defining the project goals and the scope, as well as determining a feasible schedule. Here we begin to understand the potential costs of supporting the project. Phase two is the agreement phase. This is finalizing the scope, schedule, budget, and if needed, establishing the contract or work agreement. Then there's phase three or the implementation of a project. This is when the project is ready and executed in the field. Each phase has aspects of each of the other phases, so there is a lot of interaction and iteration. You notice the investigator is central in all aspects of the process, and we work closely with each investigator to ensure the project is feasible and can be successful. With this focus on the investigator and their creative ideas and research, we've had a positive community response. Next, I'll show you the growth of the program over the years. These tables show the total number of assignable asset projects and service requests from award year 2016 to present, and by present, I mean these data are up to date as of yesterday, August 12. The numbers that you see here are based on the NEON award year, which is from October to September. The left table shows the number of project requests and the identified sources of received funding or sources of funding they are seeking from. The right table shows the services requested. The totals are different here because a project request can have multiple service requests. For example, there could be a sensor infrastructure request as well as a request for simultaneous observational sampling and additional or an additional AOP overflight. Going back to the left table, to date, we've had a total of 350 assignable asset project requests. As you can see, the NSF is by far the number one source of funding for requests, followed by NASA and then the universities. Private funding is forth, and then there's a scattering of other funding entities, including several mixed funding sources, and there's even been four projects with funding identified as coming from foreign government agencies. Moving to the table to the right, the observational sampling infrastructure is the most requested service, but access to the sensor infrastructure is about as equally requested. We are seeing an increase in field-side coordination requests as researchers begin to realize the wealth of NEON data and now want to do additional work or supplemental research at NEON sites. We do get quite a few AOP requests for flight surveys, some for additional flights around the NEON sites like expanded flight boxes or many other non-NEON areas. We've had 13 MDP requests and three requests for excess samples. This graph shows the number of projects requested per award year. As you can see, there's a near linear growth from award year 16 to 20. Just a quick reminder that NEON wasn't fully commissioned until 2019, so even prior to full commissioning, there's been interest in working at NEON sites or using the observatory resources. Award year 21 is anomalous as that was a time heavily impacted by COVID, where none of us could go outside or travel. Award year 22, so I returned to the number of requests, but we think the lower number of requests was still due to some impact due to COVID. Award year 23 has already exceeded all previous award year requests and we anticipate a few more requests before the end of this award year. This increasing request for projects is really driven by NSF funding solicitations, increased visibility of NEON itself, our community engagement efforts, and ultimately our user desire to do research at NEON sites. Now that you've seen what NEON is, what the assignable assets program is about, I'd like to show you how one would request research support through the assignable assets program and some of the processes involved. Requesting one or multiple assignable assets services is very straightforward. We have specific forms that are tailored to nearly each type of service request, and these are all available on the assignable assets webpage. They should also be linked in the chat. Direct links to each type of request will also be linked in the chat. Currently, we have word-based request forms for the observational sampling, the sensor infrastructure, the AOP, the MDP, and the exit sample request. Requests for field site coordination and letter support are now web-based. We're actively occurring to get all the forms updated and to be web-based. It's just taking us some time to get it integrated into our new engagement software platform. So in the meantime, you'll just have to submit the word-based form to us at the assignable assets program email, which will also be linked in the chat. Each request has questions that allow us to start understanding your proposed research. This includes the PI and contact information, a project overview, so we can understand the project scope, location, dates, funding status or funding sources, as well as some additional information that will help us understand how NEON will be supporting your project or the resources being requested. Essentially, questions on who, what, when, why, and where. But what if my project details aren't solidified? This is actually a very common question for us. Don't worry. We anticipate plenty of conversation and collaboration with you. We know there will likely be iteration, and that's okay. These discussions are critical for us to understand your research, and it does allow us to work with you on ensuring the support you get will result in your research success. We encourage you to come to us early with your ideas, especially if this is something you are unaware. Like that you are unaware that can be done at a NEON site or if you have a new instrument or project idea. Contact us early and we can work with you on something that will be feasible and cost effective. When you know you'd like to make a request, we recommend completing the format out as much as possible and submitting it to us. Being clear on the project goals and the requirements around the request, requested support from NEON is helpful in starting these conversations. It's also helpful for us to know where you're flexible in your request or looking for neon input on how something may best be executed with our existing infrastructure and schedule. The request form is not thorough by any means. It's just the initiation of the request process in the beginning of the conversation. We'll follow up with subsequent questions and set up a remote meeting to discuss the project further if needed. And lastly, submit your request early. Give us time to understand your project and allow us to work with you. Now I'd like to change gears briefly and go over the request process. Here I'm showing a simplified process that an assignable asset request would go through. This process is the same for any assignable asset request regardless of project scope, project size, institution or agency. Our requests go through the same process. This process here is for a research project that is seeking funding from a funding agency like the NSF. The research, step one, the researcher submits the appropriate request form. Step two, NEON will then review it and conduct a feasibility review and cost analysis. Step three, following the review and analysis, we send results and budget to the researcher for review. During this step, we'll iterate with the researcher on the scope, scope of work and the costs. Step four, once the scope of work and budget is agreed upon, the researcher would then submit the proposal to the funding agency. In step five, the researcher should receive the results from their proposal and if they are funded, we would then move to step six. In step six, this is where NEON and the researcher would finalize the scope, details of the deployment, finalize the budget and importantly set the contract for the work. Once we have the contract in place, we move to step seven. We could then move to implement your project in the field. Now, if a researcher already has funding in place, the process is still the same. It's just there's no step, old step four, which was the submission to the funding agency. So now it becomes a five step process, but it's still relatively the same. Some guidelines that we have on our website on timeline, for example, asset requests are that if you are seeking funding, we request that you submit your application at least six weeks prior to the proposal submission deadline. We realize that many researchers don't have their full proposals finalized six weeks prior, but we can at least work with you to get the NEON portion of your proposal done early. If you have funding secured and would like to move towards a contract and implementing your project, we ask that you submit your request at least eight weeks prior to the proposed start date of the data collection. Now, I will note that this eight weeks is if you already had prior contact with us and already have your location set, and most importantly, you actually have your permits already. We do encourage you to submit early, however. Again, and here are the reasons these processes can be lengthy. It takes time to iterate with the researcher on the scope of work and requirements and make sure we can support the proposed project. Permitting can take a lot of time, sometimes months depending on the site. Since permitting is a responsibility to the requester, people should be aware of permitting timelines. This is often an overlooked aspect that I want to I want people to be aware of this potential delay. If you're funded and ready to proceed, the contracting can take a month or more, and this usually and this time is usually limited by how fast Patel and the research institution can agree to the terms of contract. And then there is the scheduling or field science teams, scheduling with our field science teams and field ecologists. Our teams are usually very busy doing NEON work throughout the 81 sites of the observatory. So we would need some time to make sure schedules can be coordinated and aligned. And each request is completely unique and has its own site and project specific challenges. One way to think of this is that we are essentially setting up a completely new research project from scratch with each new assignable as a request. Recognize that research opportunities sometimes just happen without notice. For example, rapid changes in the ecosystem or large disturbances. In this case, reach out to us. We will work with the researcher as rapidly as possible. I'm sure you're noticing a theme message going on here. This is from personal experience and having gone through about 350 of these requests. So yes, you know, please reach out to us early, talk to us early. So now I'd like to share with you some example assignable asset projects. Hopefully this will give you an idea of the breath and scope of possibilities that we can support at NEON. Here I'd like to show five example projects. These projects are funded either by the NSF or another funding source like NASA or another government agency. Each example uses various assignable asset services. Number one, a simple, I'd like to show a simple and easy to implement long term and low cost project. Second one, I'd like to show a project that requires field installation support and maintenance of multiple sites. Third project, I'd like to show a project that uses multiple services over the course of a project. Fourth one, I'd like to show a complex and intensive field labor support project at multiple sites spanning five years. And finally, a project that use one of our mobile resources, the MDP. The first example project is a simple and easy to implement long term and low cost project. This project was from the Hawaii Department of Natural Resources and the University of Hawaii. And they wanted to mount a bird tracking antenna on the top of the tower. The state of Alaska is reintroducing the native Hawaiian ala-la bird. And tracking these birds are, as they are reintroduced, are critical to understanding their success. They wanted to install a near permanent tracking antenna on one of the highest structures on the Big Island. And since the Hawaii DNR is our site coast for our NEON site, us supporting this project was actually very easy. After installation, there really isn't any maintenance and their data is automatically collected and transmitted to them. They would like this installation to remain on the tower for as long as NEON has a site in Hawaii. And this is something we believe we could continue to implement. Second project is a project that requires field installation support and collector maintenance of multiple sites. Dr. Chowdhury is studying aerial or muscular mycorrhizae, AM fungi in the dust, and we helped her deploy her collectors at all 20 of our core NEON terrestrial sites. Requested services were sensor infrastructure and field site coordination. She was planning to use her collected data along with some of the NEON data. There was a link to the NSF award in the chat, as well as a link to a NEON blog post that we did on Dr. Chowdhury's project. The third example is a project that uses multiple services over the course of the project. Dr. Bowling and his co-investigators were interested in solar induced chlorophyll fluorescence measurements or SIF measurements. The main service requested here was for sensor infrastructure with installation of the photo spec on the tower. They also requested some observational sampling infrastructure and some field ecologists time to do monthly conifer needle sampling around the tower area. Then they also wanted to do additional sampling at nine sites, and that is where the field site coordination service came into play. Though the project is focused on one main site at OSBS where the instrument is installed, they also requested support from the field ecologists for monthly conifer sampling. This is an example of a project using multiple resources. The fourth example is a complex project with extensive field labor support conducted across 11 terrestrial sites and spanning five years, so a fairly long duration project. Because of how labor intensive this project is, the NEON support costs are large. The NSF awarded this as part of the macro systems biology and the Unenabled Science proposal solicitation. There's a link to the award in the chat. This project is looking at stem flow and through fall and has asked the question how much of what kind of particulate matter is washed from tree canopies by rainfall. Support this project. We did the installation of the collectors seen above. But the extensive field labor support is that our field staff have to go out to all the sites, all the samples prior to a precipitation event, open all the collector buckets and collectors, and then wait for the precipitation event to occur. Then following the rain event or the precipitation event, the teams have to go back out to the site, collect the and collect the samples and then clean the collectors for the next precipitation event. So the PI here is targeting at least 10 rain events per site per year. So as you can see, this can be extremely labor intensive, especially across 11 sites. So this project here is really a good example of what having NEON staff presence at each domain and distributed throughout the United States has to offer to researchers. There was really no cost effective way for Dr. Van Stan and his team to be able to travel across all these sites, collect at the time of a precipitation event. So this is really, like I said, a good example of NEON's presence and the distribution throughout the United States. The last example is a request that came to us from Colorado State University. It was for a single mobile deployment platform, but they wanted it deployed in two different locations. This project was the subject of an NSF Rapid Award where researchers wanted to augment and integrate edge computing hardware into the NEON MDP so that the MDP would be ready to study wildfires. There's a link to the NSF Rapid Award in the chat. This project had two phases. Phase one was testing and integration of the researchers' equipment and sensors into an MDP and to ensure that it is fully functional and well integrated. The second phase of the project was supposed to be to deploy the MDP to a contained Colorado wildfire. Though there were many wildfires that happened during that year, we were unable to get the appropriate access to access permissions to deploy the MDP immediately after it contained wildfire. But this didn't deter the researchers and we pivoted and worked with other research colleagues to get the MDP deployed to a controlled bird. So phase two of the project was in collaboration with the consuprary biological station where they were conducting prescribed burns. Because this is a controlled burn, we were able to deploy the MDP before they burned to gather pre-burn data. We operated the research equipment during the actual fire since the research questions involved fire detection. And then we kept the MDP there for a short while after the collected post burn data. It was a very rare opportunity to be able to have the equipment present and not destroyed or ruined during a fire. During the burn, the researchers actually streamed a live video and data from the MDP tower. We have some YouTube videos on each of the phases of the project linked here and are also linked in chat. We are near the end and I just want to provide a few slides with some opportunities and resources. So this past Monday, September 11th, there was an NSF division of environmental biology, DEB, virtual office hours, the topic focusing on DEB funding for neon-enabled science. This was a very informative session and I encourage people to go and watch the recorded session. They discussed funding opportunities for neon-enabled science within NSF. I checked this morning and the recording isn't up on the website yet. But we'll put a link in the chat to the location of where they usually post their sessions. But while we're on the topic of neon-enabled science, I want to point you to a funding opportunity that specifically focuses on proposals for neon and neon-enabled science. This is not the only funding opportunity from NSF for neon-related projects since any division in NSF can fund projects that involve neon. Also, funding can come from other sources like NASA, DOE, etc. I'm highlighting this particular one just because it's specific for proposals that are focused on neon. This funding opportunity is from the NSF DEB and the title of solicitation is Microsystems Biology in Neon-Enabled Science or MSB NES. The deadline fast approaches and is on November 13th, 2013. This is an annual solicitation of the deadline every second Monday in November. We've provided a link to this solicitation and I strongly encourage everyone to look at this opportunity, especially if you're thinking of a project that involves neon or work at neon sites. Each year, we eagerly await incoming assemble asset requests associated with solicitation. So if you are planning on submitting a proposal to the solicitation and have an assignable asset request, I strongly encourage you to reach out to us as early as possible. This is a really busy time for us and reviewing all the assignable asset requests for this solicitation means we get extremely busy. There could be some delays and so we would like to start getting these things at least a couple months ahead of time. Now I want to bring your attention to an upcoming event at this year's American Geophysical Union or AGU fall meeting in December. So there's a town hall that will focus on neon assignable assets program and research support. It will cover a lot of the same material I present today, but the town hall is just another opportunity for you all to come talk with us and interact with us directly. The AG organizers have not scheduled the date and time yet. We were expecting to hear back from the organizer sometime in October. Once we know the dates, we can post an update to the neon website. So if you are physically attending AGU this year, please stop by and see us. We do hope that we will see you in San Francisco in December. Before we move to the Q&A, I want to give Samantha and Mike the opportunity for any comments or anything that I missed. Mike, would you like to have any comments? That was great. Thank you. No, I think you covered it quite well. Thank you so much. Thank you, Samantha. Yep, I agree. That's a great overview of what we have. Great. Thank you. So all three of us are ready to answer your questions. So if there are any questions, please put them inside the Q&A. And I will now stop presenting and we'll go to Q&A. So if there are any more questions to roll on, the first one might be Ramel, what if a researcher is interested in visiting a site just to get a sense of what the site looks like and how they might set up their research there, but they have not yet submitted a proposal or initiated an AA request. How do they go about that? And is that something that can happen? Yes, it is. Samantha, would you like to address that one? Yes, we will. You can reach out to the Assignable Assets team. If you're interested in our email, if you have a bit more, you can also fill out a field site coordination request. If that looks like the right questions, that can address yours. Otherwise, feel free to reach out via email and we'll get you connected up with the right folks to figure out what permissions and anything else is needed to get you on site. Great. Thank you, Samantha. What about destructive sampling? Say, I was interested in digging soil pits at a research site or clipping some foliage. Is that something that's possible or do we have to maintain the strict not destruction of any sampling or any of the leaves or foliage or plants around the site? Can we take additional samples as part of an AA? This is part of the request process is a feasibility review where we assess the impact of this particular work. Usually, NEON does not want anyone to do anything within their NEON plots just because it's going to affect their NEON measurements and no external research could affect the NEON measurements or the NEON sampling. But it doesn't mean that some destructive sampling can't occur. For example, some small leaf clippings may not actually affect the particular plot that's being studied. So it is possible. However, what we'll do is usually, if it's okay with your research and meet your research goals, we'll help you find a spot that's right next to the plot so that you don't disturb the NEON plot. However, like we said, come talk to us whether it's possible and we'll review it and come up with a feasible solution for you. A question here that is, what's the cost usually composed of? I would say that question is going to be very dependent on the project. We're going to cost what it takes to implement that project and conduct what you request and then return that cost to you. Is that how it works? Yeah, that's also part of the feasibility review and the cost analysis and our iteration with the researchers is us understanding their project scope and then what is needed to support that project. So some projects may require a lot of field labor. For example, like that one project on stem flow and through flow that required a lot of yield time. Some are very, very simple or the investigator themselves could do their own installations and don't require NEON field assistance. So that could be a smaller budget. So it kind of depends. And like I had mentioned before, each request is unique. So we really need to evaluate each one and the impact and the budget. So the cost could vary from very little or sometimes even zero cost to up to a million dollars of support. So it depends. Excellent. And then Matt, Cain, the program officer put a great point into the Q&A. The Q&A is that the MSDNES program is not simply a NEON focused program and the macro systems biology emphasizes the pursuit of understanding a biological phenomenon regional to continental scales. And NEON data and a request are encouraged when appropriate but not required that PIs should recall and remember to consult their program officers to determine which is the best program for their projects. So that's a great point. Thank you Matt. Another question is how soon can researchers expect to get the data collected via a program project such as collected by NEON personnel or even something like AOP data. And I think that depends on the data collection as well. That's going to be depending on how things are set up right. Exactly. If it's an instrumentation and they have access network access, they could get their data immediately. So field sampling data collection, it kind of depends on the schedule when they're going to be collected. But usually once they're collected, we set up a process with the investigator to transfer their data as they're collected. So they'll get it right away if that's the procedure that we have established with the investigator. Great. And that brings to mind another interesting and an important point of this for now, which is if I was to deploy an additional sensor onto a NEON tower, does my data flow into the NEON pipeline or does it get collected somewhere else? How does that work? No, it doesn't go through the NEON data pipeline. The NEON data pipeline has very strict controls on it and no project gets integrated into the NEON data stream. So our data stream is really tied to our cyber infrastructure and our processing platforms. So what happens is what we provide the researchers is we provide them access to the internet. So their data could then go directly to them or directly to a bucket that we could set up for them to store their data where they could get access to it. But they won't be integrated into the NEON data or presented in the NEON data portal. That's just not how NEON is set up. But like I said, we'll work with the investigator on how to deliver the data and then the investigator could choose where to post it or where to archive it. Great. And they are able to tie into the NEON power or internet if possible if needed. Absolutely. Okay, great. There's another question here from Etienne Chenard, which is, is there a maximum duration for new measurements through sensor infrastructure? So is there a time at which we can no longer host or is there a limit you exceed? Right now, because we're not oversubscribed at NEON, there is no time limit. However, I do want to point out that we review all projects every five years. So for example, that Hawaii project, that one they wanted to be there for the 30 years of NEON. However, every five years, we look at all the assignable asset projects that are at the sites and we reassess whether it's still feasible at the site. And we also work with the investigator whether it's still relevant to their science questions. So, yeah, there is no upper limit yet. However, every five years, we will reevaluate each site and if we have to either take it down if it's no longer relevant or renegotiate the support needed. Great. Okay, this is a great base question, which is, where can someone find a list of all the neon sites where sampling can occur? Is it possible to implement AA every one of the 88 one neon sites or some more limited with respect than others? Yes, depending on the project, you can select all 81 neon sites pending that the infrastructure at those sites could support it. For example, the 47 terrestrial sites all have power network communications. Those aren't going to be a problem. The aquatic sites. Some of those are powered by solar power or by a remote generator and they just don't have the power or the network bandwidth. It kind of depends on your sensor or what kind of data collection. But yeah, I mean, you could do all 81 sites if you want. I'd add for the observation side of things, there is some instances where you'll need to request site host permissions as well. And that can be variable of what they'll invite and allow at the sites. And there is more information on all the sites with that specific detail on the assignable asset web page. There's a site access sheet there that has contacts and information about the ease of working at each location. Thank you, Sam. That is a great point, which is assuming the neon has permits for all of the work they're conducting at these sites. Do we or do community members conducting a projects need to request their own additional permits for their projects or does neon handle that for them or do they fall under the umbrella of the existing neon permits. Existing neon permits are for neon work and the scope of the work that neon does. So all researchers have to do have to get their own research permit. However, and I'll let Samantha time in on this. There may be some instances where the neon permit actually does cover an external researchers permit for example some if they're taking similar leaf clippings but I'll let Samantha elaborate a little bit more on that. Yeah, I think it's all part of that feasibility review that you mentioned earlier where we go through what's possible and how this project would work. Is it something that our staff is doing similar that would be covered or is their site host specific necessities in areas and so that all comes out through the discussion process with us of what would be required to do the work. Great. Here's another question is the number of neon sites itself plan to increase. So that that we know of. I would add though that perhaps this is a good time to just mention the MDP the mobile deployment platform as it is to a degree a mobile neon site so if you have a question or gap in the landscape that you would like to see represented with neon measurements, there's a proposal to utilize the MDP to fill that gap or assess that ecosystem or phenomena could be great way to go about it and rope the neon data into that place. And one other question is from Walter O'Shell is if you were to be operating a number of any covariance towers in Alaska, and there are neon staff nearby is it possible to work with neon to potentially put in an A to get help from those towers. I think that would be something we'd have to discuss in detail and how that would work and a request of that nature. So we have seen some requests for off neon site support though so that is certainly something to put in and submit to us that we can discuss further, not limited to those couple sites. Okay. And that is all of the questions at this point. Do you have anything else you would like to add. I see one more that asks about a mix potentially of if the neon PI does some or the PI does some work and the neon team does and that mixture is totally possible. And we have done that in some projects where the PI team may take care of sites close to them. Well, for the reaching sites neon support so all of that is a great option indeed. Great. Do you have anything else believe you might be muted. No, I don't have anything have we covered what we have in it in the q amp a looks like there's so quite a bit. Most of them at this point. Yeah. Okay, well if there's a you could always reach out to us and the unassailable assets program. There's links in the chat. We will post these. We will post this video on the neon website for those review later and we'll also provide all the links in the presentation and inside the that was inside the chat as well. Okay, I want to thank you everybody for your time. And thank you for attending. Thank you all so much. Take care.