Oceanographic Technical Services, 2012 -2016, R/V Pelican

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Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUMCON) proposes to support technical services on R/V Pelican, a 116 foot, general purpose research vessel operated by the consortium as part of the University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System research fleet. They request support for basic services only; they will provide one technician on each seagoing research project. In addition, the technical services group will maintain, calibrate and provide for qualified users items from their pool of shared-use research instrumentation. The budget included with this report is for the first year of a 4-year continuing grant.In 2012, Pelican had no days for NSF. All other vessels in the Academic Fleet submitted proposals in 2012 for the first year of a 5-year continuing grant. For LUMCON, however, there was no award made in 2012. In order to keep all vessels on the same schedule with regards to the length of the technical services continuing grants, this award is proposed as the first year of a four-year continuing grant.The Program received the proposal on 1/18/2013. As required, the proposal provided information regarding 2012 operations as well as outlining plans and a proposed budget for 2013. Research vessels in the Academic Fleet provide support for researchers from a variety of federal and state agencies, as well as some private sponsors. All users (or the appropriate funding agencies) share support for basic technical services on the vessel equally, via a day-rate, with each paying a share of the costs based on fractional usage of the vessel. The rates are negotiated annually with the NSF Program Manager.Broader ImpactsThe principal impact of the present proposal is under criterion two, providing infrastructure support for scientists to use the vessel and its shared-use instrumentation in support of their NSF-funded oceanographic research projects (which individually undergo separate review by the relevant research program of NSF). The support of maintenance and operation of shared-use instrumentation allows NSF-funded researchers from any US university or lab access to working, calibrated instruments for their research, reducing the cost of that research, and expanding the base of potential researchers.