ESIP Update: Call for Community Fellows & Data Help Desk Experts and more

Please Share: Call for 2021 ESIP Community Fellow Applicants
ESIP Community Fellows are graduate students and post-docs (<2 yrs since graduation) interested in bridging the gap between informatics and Earth Science. This fellowship provides fellows with a chance to work closely with professionals in an interdisciplinary, cross-sector group (ESIP collaboration area) on current Earth Science problems. Community fellows become engaged in ESIP collaboration areas as rapporteurs, documenting group activities on monthly telecons and at ESIP’s semi-annual meetings. As fellows become more familiar with collaboration-area activities, they may choose to integrate their own research, which can result in publication and additional funding opportunities. Fellows receive a stipend of $2000 and paid participation in the 2020 ESIP Winter and Summer Meetings. Fellows must be able to attend both meetings to participate in the fellowship. You can learn about the 2020 Class of Community Fellows here. Learn more about the opportunity and apply by 10/9 here. 

Virtual Data Help Desk at GSA20: Please Volunteer
Volunteer by 10/9 to be a Data Expert for the Virtual Data Help Desk at GSA 2020, to be hosted during the week of GSA 2020 Connects Online (October 26th-October 30th, 2020). This event, which is a program of EarthCube, ESIP, and the GSA Geoinformatics & Data Science Division, connects researchers with informatics experts familiar with their scientific domain to learn about skills and techniques that will help further their research and make their data and software open and FAIR. You can volunteer to take part in one or more of the following ways:

• Answer data questions (monitor question forums and answer where you can during the week of October 26th)
• Share a recorded demo of a tool or resource (ideally <5 min)
• Share a one-pager about your tool or resource

To volunteer, please complete this brief form as soon as possible by October 9th. Learn more about specific options for participating here.

Ag & Climate Cluster Do-a-Thon (Tuesday 10/6 at 3 pm ET)
The Ag & Climate Cluster will hold a second do-a-thon to semantically annotate how the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) relate to cluster interests. This activity will help the group as they plan SDG-related talks and activities over the next few months focused on the nexus of climate, USDA-relevant matters (e.g. wildfire, agriculture), and informatics. Find connection info here.

2021 ESIP Winter Meeting: Call for Sessions OPEN NOW through 11/5!
The session proposal portal for the 2021 Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP) Winter Meeting (January 26th-28th, 2021; Online) is open now through 11/5. For over 20 years, ESIP meetings have brought together the most innovative thinkers and leaders around Earth observation data, thus forming a community dedicated to making Earth observations more discoverable, accessible and useful to researchers, practitioners, policy makers, and the public. We especially welcome session proposals related to the meeting theme: Leading Innovation in Earth Science Data Frontiers. Sessions are 90 minute blocks and can follow a number of different formats. Learn more and submit a session proposal by 11/5 here. 

Putting Data to Work Webinar: Quantifying and Communicating Climate Change Risk at First Street
Join us this Thursday October 8th at 3 pm ET for a talk given by Ed Kearns, Chief Data Officer at the First Street Foundation. The First Street Foundation is quantifying and communicating the flood and inundation risks posed by a changing environment.  First Street has created a nation-wide assessment of flood risk for the contiguous United States (CONUS) and the District of Columbia, and is now sharing that assessment for free with the public through Flood Factor(TM). Risk scores for each of the approximately 142 million properties in CONUS were built upon open data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Flood risk from rivers, precipitation, sea level rise, and coastal storms have been combined into a single risk assessment methodology to raise individuals' awareness of their risks, and empower them to take steps to reduce their current and future flood risk exposure.

Call for ESIP Leadership Nominations
We are at the time of year when we begin accepting nominations for ESIP leadership positions. There are many different positions that you can be nominated (or nominate yourself) for – see https://wiki.esipfed.org/Nomination_Committee/2021_Nominations_and_Ballot between now and October 31, 2020. Send nominations (self-nomination is encouraged) to nominations@esipfed.org. Multiple nominees for each position are welcome and encouraged. We want to grow the ranks of our leaders and encourage the leadership-curious among you! If you have questions, you can also also write to the Nominations Committee (chaired by Karl Benedict) at nominations@esipfed.org.

Call for Nominations for the 2020 Partner of the Year Award
The ESIP Partner of the Year Award honors an ESIP Partner Organization that exemplifies the spirit of ESIP in one or more areas, through the sharing of a success story. This year, we are looking for partner organizations that have supported the 2020 ESIP theme of Putting Data to Work: Building Public-Private Partnerships to Increase Resilience and Enhance the Socioeconomic Value of Data. We are looking for ESIP partners who have:

• Been involved in an activity or interacted with ESIP in a manner that has improved the use and value of Earth science data and information, or
• Helped the Earth science community put data to work, using and reusing data in new and creative applications, creating derived products and showcasing examples of data integration in order to enhance the resilience and enhance the socioeconomic value of data, or
• Formed or strengthened a public-private partnership that supports the goals above.

This award will be given annually at the Winter Meeting. The partner organization will receive a plaque and two free ESIP meeting registrations for an upcoming meeting. Learn more and nominate an organization here by 10/31.

2021 Martha Maiden Award: Call for Nominations
In honor of Martha E. Maiden’s leadership, dedication and tireless efforts to nurture ESIP into a vibrant and mature organization, the Martha Maiden Lifetime Achievement Award for Service to the Earth Science Information Community award was established in 2009 to recognize outstanding service to the Earth science information community. This award honors individuals who have demonstrated leadership, dedication and a collaborative spirit in advancing the field of Earth Science information.

This award is named for Martha E. Maiden, NASA Program Executive for Earth Data Systems. Ms. Maiden is widely credited for nurturing the ESIP Federation in its infancy and has overseen its growth and maturity. This award is presented annually at the January meeting. Learn more and nominate an individual here by 10/31.

More News

SGCI Webinar: Guidance and Survey Results from the Trustworthy Data Working Group (10/7)
On Wed. 10/7 at 1 pm ET, Jim Basney, Senior Research Scientist at NCSA will present on the guidance and survey results from the Trustworthy Data Working Group. Learn more here.

2021 NSF EarthCube Solicitation Informational Webinar (11/6 at 2 pm ET/11 am PT)
Have you wanted to become a funded project under the NSF EarthCube initiative? The EarthCube community is interested in recruiting new partners and encouraging their participation in the upcoming NSF call for new capabilities, pilots, and research coordination networks. This is not an official NSF webinar, but is meant to give timely and helpful advice with time for questions and answers. Participation by EarthCube Office, Leadership Council, and community. Friday, Nov. 6, 11 am PT.  Read announcement and register for the webinar.

NASA Space Technology Graduate Research Opportunities – Fall 2021 (NSTGRO21)
NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) seeks to sponsor U.S. citizen, U.S. national and permanent resident graduate student research that has significant potential to contribute to NASA’s goal of creating innovative new space technologies for our Nation’s science, exploration, and economic future. NASA Headquarters has released a solicitation, titled NASA Space Technology Graduate Research Opportunities – Fall 2021 (NSTGRO21). Please note that this solicitation replaces the NASA Space Technology Research Fellowships (NSTRF) solicitation. Proposals in response to NSTGRO21 must be submitted electronically through NSPIRES and are due on November 2, 2020, by 6 PM ET/3 PM PT. Learn more by visiting the following URL: https://tinyurl.com/NSTGRO21.

Help AGI Understand COVID-19 Impacts on Geoscience Workplace & Instructional Environments
The American Geosciences Institute (AGI) is conducting a year-long study to understand the impacts on geoscientists, employers and educational institutions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and to discover which of these changes will become permanent. Over the next 52 weeks, survey participants will be emailed a brief online status survey twice a month. The survey will only take a few minutes to complete. For more information about the survey, visit www.americangeosciences.org/workforce/covid19.

LTER Network Synthesis Working Group Proposals
With 28 active research programs going back 40 years and more, the Long Term Ecological Research Network (LTER) has generated a rich trove of data (including over 7000 publicly available long term datasets housed at the Environmental Data Initiative (EDI). To encourage reuse, synthesis, and integration of these data, the LTER Network Office is funding 2-4 new synthesis working groups for up to 2 years and up to $55K/year.  Proposals emphasizing LTER's core thematic areas are encouraged, as are novel applications of LTER data. Proposal PIs do not need to be current LTER investigators, but synthesis teams should involve some LTER researchers and must draw on data from at least 2 LTER sites. Proposal deadline is October 14, 2020, with decisions in early January 2021. Full details at https://lternet.edu/synthesis/request-for-proposals-2020/.