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Press Release 04-040
NSF Awards Contract for Central Management of Integrated OceanDrilling Program (IODP)
April 5, 2004
ARLINGTON, Va.—The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded
a contract to Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Management
International, Inc. (IODP-MI) for central management and planning
for the IODP. IODP-MI will also coordinate and support program
data archiving, sample archiving, publishing activities,
education and outreach. The contract has an estimated cost of
$429 million over 10 years. The Japanese Ministry of Education,
Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT) will consult with
NSF in contract management.
James Allan, program director in NSF's division of ocean
sciences, stated, "this contract represents the final major step
in the implementation of the IODP, the largest international
earth science program in history. It is the culmination of many
years of planning efforts by international scientists to have
strong, centralized management and control over science
operations in this new drilling program." The IODP will use a
variety of drilling platforms to help solve major problems, including the history of global climate
change, the origin of damaging earthquakes, and the origin of
life and extent of subsurface microbial activity.
IODP-MI is a non-profit, U.S. corporation, recently formed by 15
U.S. and seven Japanese leading institutions in the geosciences.
It is expected that an additional eight institutions from Europe
will join this corporation shortly. IODP-MI will plan and
coordinate the efforts of the IODP science operators and drilling
platforms. The core drilling platforms consist of an all-purpose,
U.S. light drillship, and the 57,500-ton heavy drillship Chikyu,
under construction by Japan and oriented towards deep crustal
drilling in harsh environments. These drillships will be
augmented by "mission-specific" platforms, used for drilling in
shallow or Arctic waters and sponsored by a consortium of
European countries.
IODP is an international program of basic research that succeeds
the Deep Sea Drilling Project (1968-1983) and the Ocean Drilling
Program (1983-2003). IODP differs from these programs in having
multiple drilling platforms and equal partners in program
contributions (the United States and Japan). IODP also differs
from other large international science programs in that
contributions are not "in-kind" but are instead managed centrally
under contract. More information is available at
http://www.iodp.org/
-NSF-
Media Contacts
Cheryl Dybas, NSF (703) 292-7734 cdybas@nsf.gov
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering. In fiscal year (FY) 2009, its budget is $9.5 billion, which includes $3.0 billion provided through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. NSF funds reach all 50 states through grants to over 1,900 universities and institutions. Each year, NSF receives about 44,400 competitive requests for funding, and makes over 11,500 new funding awards. NSF also awards over $400 million in professional and service contracts yearly.
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