Robert B. Waide, Executive Director,
LTER Network Office
The LTER Network will spend the next few months developing a strategic plan to help define future goals and activities of the network. The 20 Year Review Committee called for such a plan saying:
The LTER program must forge a bold decade of synthesis science that will lead to a better understanding of complex environmental problems and result in knowledge that serves science and society. To realize this ambitious goal, the LTER community, working with NSF, must develop a comprehensive strategic plan for the LTER enterprise.” Final Report, LTER Twenty-year Review Committee
NSF endorsed the recommendation strongly, and the LTER community is responding. The Executive Committee will take the lead in developing a draft plan, working closely with the Coordinating Committee and the Network Office. The Executive Committee (Dan Childers, Bruce Hayden, John Hobbie, Nancy Grimm, Alan Knapp, Peter McCartney, and Jim Gosz, Chair) met in Washington in late February to decide the timetable and approach to the task of strategic planning. They will meet again before the May Coordinating Committee meeting at Kellogg Biological Station to continue their work. After the Coordinating Committee provides input to the draft, a revised version will be reviewed by the LTER National Advisory Board (Peter Arzberger, Roger Bales, Barbara Bedford, Robert Dickinson, Jim Levitt, John Magnuson, Pam Matson, Elinor Ostrum, Jack Stanford, Margaret Werner-Washburne, Michael Goodchild, and Paul Risser, Chair) this summer. After revision, the strategic plan will be rolled out at the All Scientists Meeting for general comment before taking final form.
NSF has also asked the LTER Network Office (NET) to develop its own strategic plan. This request was based on a series of recommendations made by the Site Review Team that evaluated the Network Office renewal proposal. The goals of the Network Office strategic plan will overlap greatly with the plan being drafted by the Executive Committee for the network as a whole, and the NET plan will be developed in close consultation with the Executive and Coordinating Committees.
However, the NET plan will also include sections that address management structure and evaluation of the Network Office, as well as sections focusing on tasks that have been assigned to NET in the new Cooperative Agreement with NSF. These tasks include linking the LTER information management efforts with the global information technology infrastructure and facilitating international LTER activities. One important element of the NET strategic plan will focus on a mechanism for sites to provide input to NET on their needs and to assess NET response to these needs. The goal of this section will be to enhance regular communication between sites and the Network Office. Operationally, this will involve formal requests to sites for evaluation of NET activities as well as visits by NET staff to sites for joint discussions of needs.
Development of these strategic plans will benefit greatly from the involvement of a wide range of LTER scientists and students. Two groups have already been asked to focus on specific sections of the Network strategic plan. The LTER Education Committee has been working on a strategic plan for education in the LTER Network for over a year. This plan, when completed, will inform development of the education section of the Network strategic plan. The Network Information System (NIS) Advisory Group (Barbara Benson, Emory Boose, James Brunt, David Foster, Mark Harmon, Don Henshaw (chair), Tim Kratz, Peter McCartney, Bill Michener, John Vande Castle, Bob Waide, Marilyn Walker) is working to develop a strategy for making the NIS more responsive to the needs of sites and the network as a whole. The results of the group’s activities will provide input to both Network and NET planning efforts.
More involvement of LTER scientists will improve our planning efforts. I urge you to comment the planning documents, and to communicate your ideas to the Executive and Coordinating Committees and the Network Office. Presentations and discussions of the strategic plans are scheduled for the All Scientists Meeting, providing an excellent forum to obtain a broad spectrum of opinion.