The National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) 2003 Cooperative Agreements Program (CAP) winners have been announced. CAP was established by the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) to help form partnerships among organizations implementing the NSDI. The program’s goal is to encourage resource-sharing projects through the use of technology, networking, and more efficient inter-organizational coordination.

Several UCGIS universities are among the recipients.

The University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (Dan Fiscus, fiscus@al.umces.edu was awarded a metadata implementation assistance grant. Louisiana State University Geographic Information Center (Craig Johnson, cjohnson@lsu.edu) received a metadata trainer assistance grant.

A third category, metadata outreach, is designed to provide resources and staff to organizations for innovative approaches to the implementation and service of metadata. The University of Idaho Library (Bruce Godfrey, bgodfrey@uidaho,.edu), Pennsylvania State University Spatial Data Access (Maurie Caitlin Kelly, mck4@psu.edu), New Mexico State University Department of Geography (Robert Czerniak, rczernia@nmsu.edu), and the University of New Mexico Earth Analysis Center (Amelia M. Budge, abudge@edac.unm.edu) were all awarded grants in this category.

Four of seven recipients in the Clearinghouse Integration with OpenGIS Services category are from UCGIS member institutions. They are: George Mason University (Chaowei Yang, cyang3@gmu.edu), Indiana University—Indiana Geological Society (Rich Hill, hill2@indiana.edu), University of Oklahoma (David Lowther, dlowther@ou.edu), Oregon State University Department of Geosciences (Dawn Wright, dawn@dusk.geo.orst.edu).

Congratulations to all of the grant recipients.

The 2004 NSDI Cooperative Agreements Program will be announced in the Fall 2003 with awards in the Spring 2004. Look for the CAP/Funding webpage on http://www.fgdc.gov.

September 11, 2003