Mission
NOAA established
the National Center for Research on Aquatic Invasive Species (NCRAIS) to assure
cross-NOAA leadership, communication, and coordination for NOAA's research
investments in support of understanding, preventing, responding to, and managing
aquatic species invasions in U.S. coastal ecosystems. The Center's broad goal
is to foster, coordinate, and support development of aquatic invasive species
research throughout and across NOAA. The Center works as an integral member of
the NOAA Invasive Species Program (ISP), which is under the Habitat Program of
the NOAA Ecosystem Goal Team. It works with other members of the ISP to
enhance NOAA's ability to meet its mission and strategic goals, and to
carry out NOAA's responsibilities assigned by Public Law 101-646 (as amended)
and Executive Order 13112. Specifically the Center will:
- Work across NOAA to centralize an AIS research strategy that insures research is integrated with other NOAA invasive species program activities (e.g. monitoring, response, restoration, education).
- Identify NOAA's core AIS scientific expertise available to address research needs related to prevention, early detection and rapid response, management of successful invasions (control, eradication, or adaptation), and education and outreach.
- Facilitate research communication with other agencies and foster research partnerships between NOAA, other agencies, universities, and private-sector entities via the ANS Task Force, NOAA's Cooperative Institutes programs, and the National Sea Grant Program.
- Identify and seek support for collaborative research opportunities for NOAA scientists with academic and other U.S. and foreign scientists.
- Aquatic invasive species, for the most part, originate from outside the borders of the U.S., and thus, invasive species are an international problem requiring international cooperation. Often the only, or at least the most comprehensive, information about an invasive organism is found in the scientific community of the source ecosystem or country. NCRAIS will help identify partnership opportunities between U.S. and foreign scientists.
- It will encourage and support collaborative research planning, sharing of scientific information, and collaborative research projects to identify means of interdicting AIS introduction to the U.S.
Program Elements
Proposed program elements of the Center include, 1) a Regional Coordination Program covering NOAA's eight ecoregions (Great Lakes, Northeast Shelf, Southeast Shelf, Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, California Current, Alaska Ecosystems Complex, Pacific Islands Ecosystem Complex) to ensure NOAA's AIS research is national in scope but responds to regional priorities, 2) a Post-doctoral and Visiting Scientist Research Program to enhance and maintain NOAA's core research capabilities at the cutting edge of AIS science and understanding, and 3) planning and coordinating a broad NOAA AIS Research Program to assure that NOAA's AIS research investments advance both NOAA's mission and national needs.