The National Science Foundation announced funding of the five-year Critical Zone Observatories Science Across Virtual Institutes (SAVI) project of the CZO National Office. The focus of this project is to develop the capacity to make some measurements in a coordinated fashion at all CZOs. Conversations toward this cross cutting measurement paradigm are important, difficult, and time-consuming. We hypothesize that development of such measurements and this agreement will only happen with a concerted effort that entails workshops, graduate and postgraduate student mentoring, and targeted research projects that demand common measurements. In other words, a top down approach – common measurements must be completed – will only go so far. This is because the science must drive the choice of measurement protocol, and the science cannot drive common measurement strategies until the science itself crosses the network. We will address the need for agreement by organizing an approach to the development of international cross-CZO science and by establishing a new cadre of truly interdisciplinary and international scientists through graduate student and postdoctoral training. For this purpose, the CZO SAVI will serve as an integrating activity for Earth surface geosciences research worldwide.

View the NSF press release.