Dr. France A. Córdova
Director
National Science Foundation
Dear Dr. Córdova:
On behalf of the undersigned organizations, thank you and everyone at the National Science Foundation who are working so diligently during this time of chaos to sustain our scientific and education enterprise.
Faculty researchers across the country are actively endeavoring to re-envision their courses for an online instructional environment that is likely to last for at least the balance of the academic year. Faculty members must develop new methods and plans for how they will engage and support their students remotely. At the same time, many are working to minimize damage and loss to on-going research endeavors. Research administrators who are instrumental to the research process are also actively engaged in campus-wide planning and response to the COVID-19 emergency.
As the scientific community works to make these important adjustments, they lack the capacity to meet current grant proposal deadlines. They will also find it nearly impossible to sustain progress on current research endeavors. We request that the National Science Foundation delay current grant deadlines for 30 days and automatically provide a one-year no cost extensions to any grant that was set to terminate between March 1 and September 30, 2020.
Thank you for your consideration of this request. Please do not hesitate to contact us if the undersigned organizations can be of assistance on this or other matters.
Sincerely,
American Institute of Biological Sciences
American Ornithological Society
American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists
American Society of Mammalogists
American Society of Plant Taxonomists
American Society of Primatologists
Association of Ecosystem Research Centers
BioQUEST
Botanical Society of America
Bucknell University
Ecological Society of America
Field Museum
Institute of Environment at Florida International University
Mycological Society of America
Natural History Museum of Utah
Natural Science Collections Alliance
San Diego Natural History Museum
Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology
Society for Mathematical Biology
Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections
Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles
Society for the Study of Evolution
The Helminthological Society of Washington