PSCIC Working Group:

• Parag Chitnis

• Chris Greer

• Susan Lolle

• Sam Scheiner

• Jane Silverthorne

• Bill Zamer

• Manfred Zorn

Converging forces for progress:

• Plant Science

• Computational and Computer Sciences and Engineering

• Cyberinfrastructure

… is the organized aggregate of technologies that enable us to

access and integrate today’s information technology resources

—data and storage, computation, communication,

visualization, networking, scientific instruments, expertise—to

facilitate science and engineering goals.

- Fran Berman, Director, SDSC

Cyberinfrastructure …

Plant ScienceCyberinfrastructure

Collaborative

PSCICNSF06-594

Anticipated funding amount:1 AwardUp to $50M over 5 years

National Plant Genome Initiative

NPGI has produced, and will continue to produce, enormous amounts of plant genome data, which need to be made accessible to a broad community of scientists in a useable form …. Significant and broad efforts should be directed toward programs that enable individuals or groups to access, analyze and compare data.

NPGI Progress Report, 2003-2008

Mid-course Assessment of the Arabidopsis 2010 Project:

Researchers at universities, undergraduate institutions,

and community colleges have and will continue to benefit

from the information, tools, and other resources

generated through 2010. To maximize the benefit,

developing the cyber infrastructure for the dispersed

network of 2010 resources … is imperative.

Recommendations:

1. There is a strong need to create a plant cyberinfrastructure center to promote the integration of diverse and large-scale genomics and other data to address a few fundamental problems in plant biology using multi-disciplinary approaches.

Report of the NSF Workshop for a Plant Cyberinfrastructure Center; October 17-18, 2005

Synthesis of Ideas

“If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will

still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas,

then each of us will have two ideas.”

-- George Bernard Shaw

Imagine ….New types of scientific

organizations enabled by cyberinfrastructure that “serve individuals, teams and organizations in ways that revolutionize …

… what they can do, how they do it, and who participates.”

Revolutionizing Science and Engineering Through Cyberinfrastructure: Report of the NSF Blue-Ribbon Advisory Panel on Cyberinfrastructure

Biology Computer/Information

Science

Cyber-Infra-structure

Imagine ….

A new type of organization that is unified, like Borromean rings, by its interlocking elements of …

… biology, computer and information sciences, andcyberinfrastructure

Imagine ….

A center for computational thinking in biology

•Focus on grand challenge questions in plant science

•Catalyzing new synthesis through interactions between biologists, computer and information scientists, and other disciplines

A Plant Science

Cyberinfrastructure

Collaborative

Interorganizational – Distributed

Source: Diana Rhoten, Social Science Research Council

Transorganizational - Hybrid

Source: Diana Rhoten, Social Science Research Council

Characteristics of the Collaborative:

• Driven by Plant Science Challenges

• Interdisciplinary

• Innovative

• Community-driven

• Accountable

• Diverse

• Effectively managed

Responsibilities of the Collaborative:

• Catalyze progress through computational and cyberinfrastructure solutions

• Enable creative synthesis and integration

• Prepare the next generation

• Enable discovery through information access

• Lead in outreach

Examples of Synthesis Activities:

• National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS)

www.nceas.ucsb.edu

• National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent)

www.nescent.org

Program Solicitation:

• Anticipated funding amount:

1 Award

Up to $50M over 5 years

• Eligible Organizations:

US academic institutions and non-profit research

organizations

Review Timeline:

• Preproposal due date:

November 30, 2006

• Full proposal target date

April 16, 2007

• Anticipated site visits:

June, 2007

“Imagination is more important than knowledge.

For knowledge is limited to all we now know

and understand, while imagination embraces

the entire world, and all there ever will be to

know and understand.”

--Albert Einstein