Lessons in Finance for Sustaining Biological Infrastructure

Posted by on January 30, 2015
Lynda Ramirez-Blust discusses her session on communicating effectively with stakeholders.

Lynda Ramirez-Blust, a financial management strategist and coach, discussed her session on communicating effectively with stakeholders as instructors fine-tuned material for the upcoming 2015 training course on Sustaining Biological Infrastructure, on June 9-11.

Sustaining Biological Infrastructure training course, 9-11 June 2015

Living stocks, field stations, museum collections, data archives – a wealth of material and data infrastructure support the everyday activities of biologists. Collections and tools require steady funding to maintain materials and services and infrastructure managers must also be able to innovate, developing their resources to get the most value for users.

But funding this essential infrastructure is not as sexy as developing new projects. As government agencies cope with tight budgets, the traditional funding support for infrastructure is feeling the pinch. Project directors face the need to diversify their approach to funding and manage long-term planning given diverse and sometimes unpredictable revenue streams.

ESA’s training course in Sustaining Biological Infrastructure is customized to help directors of biological databases, field stations, museum collections, living stocks collections and other biological infrastructure expand their financial toolset.

Participants will learn strategies for enhancing the financial stability for their projects and programs and communicating effectively with funders, users, and providers.

 

Call for participants:

Applications for the June 9-11, 2015 SBI training course are due Friday, February 6, at 5:00 pm EST.

sustaining biological infrastructure training workshop logo

Who should apply: Ideal applicants include experienced directors and principal investigators of biological infrastructure projects (such as digital data resources, museum and living stocks collections, field stations, and marine laboratories) that have been established for at least two years.

More information is detailed on the training course website.

2015 Instructors:

  • Lynda Ramirez-Blust, Financial Management Strategist and Coach, LSRB Consulting
  • Jon Anderson, Senior Research Scientist, LI-COR Biosciences
  • Marilyn Hoyt, Consultant, Nonprofit Consulting

SBI Advisers:

  • Kevin McCluskey, Curator, Fungal Genetics Stock Center
  • Helen Berman, Former Director, Protein Data Bank (PDB)
  • Bill Michener, Project Director, Data Observation Network for Earth (DataONE)
  • Mary Klein, President and CEO, NatureServe

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