Management of West Coast Winch Pool 2018-2022

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Funding is requested for Scripps Institution of Oceanography who maintains the University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS) West Coast Winch Pool for the benefit of U.S. ocean scientists. The winch pool is a shared-use facility that procures, maintains, upgrades, and makes available a variety of portable oceanographic winches that are used by scientists aboard a broad range of research vessels. The pool currently includes a deep-sea traction winch, three light-duty winches, four general purpose mooring spoolers, one large mooring spooler, a double-barrel capstan, and a tensioning wire spooling system. Winches are shared following community-based scheduling methods run by UNOLS. Broader ImpactsThe principal impact of the present proposal is under Merit Review Criterion 2 of the Proposal Guidelines (NSF 13-589). It provides 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 acquisition, 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.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.