R/V Kilo Moana CTD Winch and Launch and Recovery System

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The University of Hawaii requests $501,697 for the purchase, fabrication, and installation of a CTD winch for the Research Vessel Kilo Moana. The Office of Naval Research (ONR) is providing funding for an accompanying launch and recovery system (LARS). The Kilo Moana is a general-purpose research vessel operated under a charter party agreement with ONR as part of the US Academic Research Fleet (ARF) which is supported by the University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS). Ship time is made available to academic researchers funded by the NSF, ONR, NOAA, NASA, and other federal and state agencies. The R/V Kilo Moana conducts a substantial portion of CTD operations in deep water, up to 6,000 meters depth in the mid-Pacific Ocean. These operations require a safe, efficient, and reliable means for transporting the CTD rosette from the deck of the ship into the water.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 project is jointly funded by NSF/GEO/OCE/IPS and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).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.