CIESIN’s Mission

According to CIESIN officials, CIESIN’s mission is to provide access to, and enhance the use of, information worldwide on human interactions in the environment and to serve the needs of scientists and public and private decisionmakers. CIESIN plans to continue to work on broadening the database capabilities and data sources supporting its mission. Appropriations for CIESIN through fiscal year 1995 totaled over $89 million, exclusive of over $42 million provided for building a CIESIN headquarters facility, which was subsequently withdrawn. Most of this funding has been fees from members of CIESIN. Officials at the federal agencies providing significant funding for CIESIN told us that, in the absence of actual or anticipated earmarks, funding of CIESIN would not have been requested because budgets were tight and that they all had higher priority, mission-related requirements. Of the federal agencies currently funding CIESIN, only NASA plans to do so after the remaining funds are used. NASA’s continued funding of CIESIN is for developing and operating a SEDAC. It neither does nor sponsors basic HDGC research. Thus, as HDGC researchers work under Foundation grants, CIESIN would provide electronic data and software support services. Noncompetitive SEDAC Contract Requires Rejustification

NASA’s award to CIESIN for the SEDAC was not competed. Global Change Research Program’s Subcommittee on Global Change Research and other appropriate interested parties, to evaluate, and incorporate into Earth Observing System Data and Information System, any useful CIESIN products developed for the Departments of Agriculture and Defense and the Environmental Protection Agency; and procurement officials at the Goddard Space Flight Center to reexamine the Competition in Contracting Act exemptions to full and open competition and, prior to exercising the next 1-year option on the contract, determine whether an appropriate exemption justifies continuation of the noncompetitive award of the SEDAC contract to CIESIN. We discussed NASA’s role in overseeing work on the human dimensions of global change with NASA, National Science Foundation, and Office of Science and Technology Policy officials. Comments From the National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Comments From the Consortium for International Earth Science Information Network

The following are comments on the CIESIN letter dated September 11, 1995.
Why GAO Did This Study

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the activities of the Consortium for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), focusing on: (1) its mission and funding; (2) the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) oversight of CIESIN work on the human dimensions of global change (HDGC); (3) the similarities between CIESIN and the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Centers for HDGC; and (4) CIESIN building requirements.

What GAO Found

GAO found that: (1) CIESIN enhances scientists' and decisionmakers' use of information on human interactions in the environment through access to HDGC databases worldwide; (2) four federal agencies have provided most of the $82 million in CIESIN funding; (3) although they are satisfied with its performance, three of the agencies will cease CIESIN funding due to budgets constraints and higher priority needs; (4) NASA will continue funding CIESIN so that it can develop and operate a Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) which will incorporate socioeconomic data into its Earth Observing System Data and Information System; (5) federal funding reductions will cause CIESIN to compete for grants and contracts from other sources; (6) NASA believes it can appropriately oversee CIESIN SEDAC activities; (7) there is no duplication of effort between NSF centers for HDGC and CIESIN because CIESIN does not conduct or sponsor basic research; (8) Congress appropriated about $42 million in fiscal year (FY) 1993 to build CIESIN headquarters, but has subsequently withdrawn all but about $3 million; (9) NASA can support only those CIESIN-leased facilities that support SEDAC activities; and (10) to maximize the usefulness of CIESIN work and to justify NASA noncompetitive contracting decisions, CIESIN work needs to be evaluated for its usefulness to federal programs and the noncompetitive SEDAC contract award needs to be justified.