The National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) is one of NSF’s most ambitious scientific infrastructure investments—a continental-scale ecological observatory designed to transform how researchers understand environmental change. Unlike traditional NSF research grants that support specific projects or investigators, NEON is a long-term, standardized data collection and monitoring system operating across dozens of terrestrial and aquatic sites throughout the United States. The observatory collects harmonized data on climate, biodiversity, hydrology, biogeochemistry, land use, and ecosystem processes, enabling researchers to detect ecological patterns and changes at regional to national scales. 

NSF NEON’s open-access datasets include biological inventories, high-frequency sensor data, greenhouse gas flux measurements, remote-sensing imagery from airborne observation platforms, soil chemistry, microbial genomics, and long-term climate records. Because the data are standardized across all sites, researchers can integrate information across ecosystems to study questions that were previously impossible—such as continental-scale species dynamics, large-scale climate impacts, carbon cycling, invasive species spread, disturbance regimes, and long-term ecological resilience. 

Researchers seeking NSF support for work involving NEON generally apply through core programs in the Biological Sciences Directorate (BIO), the Geosciences Directorate (GEO), cyberinfrastructure and data-science programs, or interdisciplinary solicitations emphasizing ecological forecasting, environmental modeling, and macrosystem ecology. Proposals must articulate how NEON data will be used rigorously, how analytical and computational approaches will be applied, and how broader impacts—such as community engagement, open-source tool development, or STEM workforce training—will be achieved. 

Eligibility follows NSF’s standard criteria: applicants must be affiliated with an eligible U.S. institution such as a university, nonprofit research organization, Tribal organization, or qualified small business. International collaborators may participate through subawards or parallel funding arrangements. Because NSF NEON is a major facility, proposals that leverage NEON often involve complex modeling, data integration, or cross-site synthesis, requiring strong methodological clarity and data-management planning. 

ScienceDocs Can Help 

ScienceDocs assists researchers using NEON data with proposal design, ecological modeling plans, data-integration strategies, and full NSF-compliant narrative development. 
Begin at sciencedocs.com/quotes.