Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and proudly operated by Battelle, the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) program provides open, continental-scale data across the United States that characterize and quantify complex, rapidly changing ecological processes. The Observatory’s comprehensive design supports greater understanding of ecological change and enables forecasting of future ecological conditions. NEON collects and processes data from field sites located across the continental U.S., Puerto Rico, and Hawaii over a 30-year timeframe. NEON provides free and open data that characterize plants, animals, soil, nutrients, freshwater, and the atmosphere. These data may be combined with external datasets or data collected by individual researchers to support the study of continental-scale ecological change.