ECORD, the European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling, is a European management structure for scientific ocean drilling.
The European research funding organisations that participated in the Ocean Drilling Program - ODP (1985 to 2003) aggreed to join its successor - the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program - IODP, under a single European umbrella. They have now formed the European Consortium for Ocean Research Drillling - ECORD through a joint action to represent and fund European ocean drilling studies at an international level. As a coordinated unit, ECORD enables to achieve critical mass and economies of scale in its progress towards equal partnership with the U.S.A. and Japan, which are currently considered as the world leaders in marine geosciences.
The proposed research in IODP concerns wide range of fundamental and applied issues for society, such as global climate change, bio-diversity, origin of life, natural hazards involving the study of eathquakes processes, mineral and energy resources along continental margins as well the internal structure and dynamics of our planet (see IODP Initial Science Plan).
Under IODP, officially launched in October 2003, a multiple platform approach has been required : the U.S.A. and Japan will operate riserless and riser drillling vessels. ECORD's role is to extend the scientific capability of the program by providing support for mission-specific platform (MSP) operations. MSPs operate in key areas such as ice-covered regions (see Arctic Coring Expedition) and shallow seas (see Tahiti Sea Level Expedition), non-accessible to the US and Japanese vessels. Providing mission-specific platforms to become the third Operational Component for IODP needs a concerted action by the European scientific community together with funding organisations which have intensely participated in the planning of IODP.
This common approach was initiated by European Funding Agencies forming the European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling - ECORD, supported by the European Commission as an ERA-net Coordinated Action of the 6th Framework Programme (ECORD-Net).
