Strategic Needs Sample Clauses

Strategic Needs. In addition to the current NSO program, Tables 6.6-1 and 6.6-2 contain budgets for proposed program enhancements, beyond inflation, needed to continue effective support for the solar community with current facilities and to position NSO to operate the new facilities, which will require increased levels of effort because of their greatly enhanced capabilities and complexity. Specific justifications for the deltas (listed in prioritized order) include: – FY 2005 Increase from the President’s Proposed Funding Level to the Long Range Plan Level. This delta represent the difference between what is needed to fully fund the NSO program and the amount NSO would receive in the President’s proposed budget. These funds are needed so that NSO can continue full operations of its major facilties, provide adequate levels of user support, and continue to pursue instrument development that fully exploits the new capabilities provided by adaptive optics and advanced IR detectors. – Postdoctoral Fellows (see Section 6.2.3). The addition of postdoctoral fellows to the NSO staff would greatly increase the scientific productivity of senior and tenure-track staff. Currently the division between service, projects and science is out of balance, with science taking the biggest hit. Postdoctoral fellows are needed to work with staff scientists on high-resolution observing and modeling in support of the ATST program and to work on the new data stream that the ▇▇▇▇▇ instruments will begin producing in 2004. – Deferred Facilities Maintenance. NSO has deferred maintenance and upgrades of both the DST and McMP in favor of putting NSO resources into new projects. Both telescopes need investment in control systems, visible and IR camera systems, and critical maintenance items to keep them performing at a level needed to provide quality data to the solar community. In addition, NSO needs to upgrade its sewage plant in Sunspot, repave some roads, repaint many of the structures, and bring housing electrical systems up to code to keep a viable infrastructure that supports the DST and other observing facilities. – Increase in NSO Salaries. NSO salaries have fallen substantially behind those of the university community. More competitive salaries are needed to maintain the staffing levels to meet NSO’s increasing obligations. NSO has only provided inflationary raises for the past five years. According to ▇▇▇▇’s salary survey, NSO scientific staff salaries are low by 15-20% and technical and admin...