We have engaged several institutions that are leaders either in outreach relating to butterfly education or biodiversity conservation in general, or in developing and launching systems related to biodiversity databases and the support of citizen-science programs.

	The University of Maryland is the home institution for the project that initiated this network.
	The Socio-environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC) is a reserach center in Annapolis, MD dedicated to creating synthetic, actionable science related to the structure, functioning and sustainability of socio-environmental systems. It does this in part by supporting the infrastructure of large data sources related to socio-environmental systems. SESYNC is part of the University of Maryland.
	The North American Butterfly Association is the largest organization of butterfly enthusiasts in North America. In hosts several monitoring programs, produces a quarterly magazine, supports several local chapters and also recently opened a butterfly conservation park in the Rio Grand Valley in TX.
	Butterfliesandmoths.org is the web page for the Butterflies and Moths Information Network. This website gives information on all butterflies and moths in North America and is also a place where people can go to identify unknown species and also report sightings. Butterfliesandmoths is our main partner for develolping web management tools for our network transect programs. The will also be working with us on developing a taxonomic "mapping" service so we can resolve differences between competing taxonomies and also will host our life history information.
	NatureServe represents an international network of biological inventories-known as natural heritage programs or conservation data centers-operating in all 50 U.S. states, Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean. In addition to maintaining databases on threatened and endangered species and habitats, they develop data management systems to help meet local, national, and global conservation needs. NatureServe is collaborating with us as we develop our data standards and develop systems and programs to help support existing and new butterfly monitoring programs.
	Encyclopedia of Life is a project to make accessible information on every species on earth. We are using EOL as one repository for information, data, and photos that could be easily reused by any group wanting to post information about North American Butterflies.
	The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is a pioneer in developing systems to engage citizens in collecting and using biodiversity data. Through contacts in their lab, and also their Citizen-Science Central project, we will be working to make sure that whatever resources we develop meet the highest standards and can reach the widest audiences.

This project is supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF award 1147049) to the University of Maryland and the Socio-environmental Synthesis Center.