detrimental to the goal of partnership development. After reviewing the call for proposals for the 2001 program, the committee notes that the maximum grant limit—$6,000 for metadata implementation assistance and $30,000 for trainer assistance—may restrict the likelihood of success, whereas the maximum limit of $75,000 for the single US-Canadian Framework project is a more appropriate funding level. The committee also noted that the 30 percent of the funding allocation for 2001 is reserved for federal agency grants. The committee considers that the strength of the NSDI partnership program lies in the development of partnerships between federal agencies and other levels of government, industry, and academic communities, and views the reservation of such a substantial proportion of available funds as detrimental to the leveraging concept and unlikely to have the catalyzing effect that the committee originally promoted. In the committee’s view, one of the significant benefits of the FGDC partnership programs lies in the effort that must be made during the proposal preparation stage. Several participants have commented that the “carrots” the FGDC offers have fostered interagency cooperation, which has resulted in successful long-term collaborations independent of the outcome of the award competition. Consequently, a high success rate may actually reduce one of the incentives for collaborative efforts.

Community Demonstration Projects represent an FGDC effort to promote another level of partnership. By using $645,000 provided by the National Performance Review Fund, FGDC was able to fund six projects from 1998 to 2000 that demonstrate the importance of geospatial data in community-wide planning. At its September 1999 meeting, the MSC heard presentations on the program as a whole, and on projects carried out in Dane County, Wisconsin; the Tijuana River Watershed; Gallatin County, Montana; and the Baltimore City Police Department. Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. (ESRI) is a partner with FGDC in these activities, providing the projects with in-kind software support and expertise.

Each of the projects is exploring an innovative form of community-federal partnership with a major geospatial data component.