The European research funding organisations, which have participated in the Ocean Drilling Program - ODP from 1985 to 2003, aggreed to join its successor - the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program - IODP, under a single European umbrella. Since October 2003, they have 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 earthquakes 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 operate deep-sea drillships, JOIDES Resolution and Chikyu respectively. 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 - Arctic Coring Expedition - and shallow seas - Tahiti Sea Level, Great Barrier Reef Environmental Changes and New Jersey Shallow Shelf Expeditions - non-accessible to the US and Japanese drilling vessels. Providing mission-specific platforms to become a Contributing Member and the third Operational Component for IODP needs a concerted action driven by the European scientific community together with the funding organisations which have intensely participated in the planning of IODP.
Such a 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, named ECORD-Net, of the 6th Framework Programme from December 2003 to August 2008.
