Industry Input Sought in Setting U.S. Ocean Science Priorities for Next Decade

WOC Encourages Private Sector Participation in U.S. National Science Foundation's (NSF) Decadal Planning of Its Ocean Sciences Program

WOC has been requested to help ensure ocean industry input to the Decadal Survey of the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Ocean Sciences Program.

Ocean business community members should visit http://nas-sites.org/dsos2015/ to provide input to determining the top U.S. ocean science priorities for the next decade. The deadline for comments is 15 March 2014.

The U.S. National Research Council (NRC) is conducting the survey of the NSF Ocean Sciences Program, which includes many programs of critical importance to industry, e.g. the International Ocean Drilling Program (IODP), and the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI).

The NRC is actively looking for input from the ocean stakeholders, especially the private sector. The NRC Committee includes WOC Member scientists who have asked the WOC to reach out to the ocean business community to help ensure industry contributions to the committee's deliberations.

The purpose of the 10-yearly study is to review the current state of ocean science knowledge in order to identify compelling scientific questions for the next decade, analyze infrastructure needed to address these questions vs. the current NSF portfolio, and identify opportunities to maximize the value of NSF investments.

The NRC is soliciting input is through a Virtual Town Hall: http://nas-sites.org/dsos2015/. The website provides more detailed information on the statement of task, background materials, as well as a complete list of the survey committee members.

The ocean business community is requested to go to the website before 15 March 2014 to provide input on the top ocean science priorities for the next decade.