ECORD Council #13 - Summary / Paris, 5-6 June 2008

The meeting was hosted by Bruno Goffé at the CNRS Headquarters, and chaired by Severino Falcón Morales.

Fernando Barriga was nominated incoming vice-chair as of 1st October 2008. The ECORD Executive as of 1st October 2008 will consist of C. Franklin (chair), S. Falcón Morales (vice chair), F. Barriga (vice chair), C. Mével (EMA), R. Belocky (Austria), and S. Dürr (Germany).

Olav Eldholm reported on the last meeting of IODP-MI Board of Governors held in San Francisco on 11th December, 2007. Two main resolutions regarding the involvement of IODP-MI’s president in the development of an industry link and the restructuring of IODP-MI, were passed. After discussing on further developments on these resolutions, the ECORD Council and the ECORD BoG members felt that communication between the BoG leadership and IMI/Council members should be improved.

Gerold Wefer reported on the last SASEC meeting held in Santa Cruz, USA, on January 2008. A crucial issue for SASEC is to prepare the post-2013 drilling program. A major workshop will be organised in Bremen in September 2009 to discuss the science plan for a future program.

Attending an invitation from ECORD Council, James Allan (NSF), Toshi Oshima (MEXT) and Nobuhisa Eguchi (JAMSTEC) participated in the open session of the Council. James Allan indicated that IODP is facing challenging realities: enormous rise in platform operational costs and the fact that planned funding increases have not occurred. To ensure the sustainability of the program, instead of increasing membership costs, the LAs have chosen to reduce platforms operations.
J. Allan insisted in the fact that IODP platform operations and integrative activities represent multi-year efforts in planning and execution, with multi-year funding requirements. He pointed out that ECORD, Japan and USA have had essentially same rights for science berths in every year of IODP, despite the fact that ECORD contributes much less to the Program than the Lead Agencies.  He indicated that ECORD contribution for FY08, as defined in Memoranda, is needed to ensure IODP viability and that NSF cannot make up shortfall in funds. J. Allan concluded saying that ECORD membership is essential to sustain IODP and that increased ECORD leadership in the programme should be consistent with increased ECORD contributions.
J. Allan informed Council that the JOIDES Resolution expected delivery from the shipyard is August 2008 and is scheduled to start operations for IODP in November 2008. The JR will operate eight months for IODP in FY09. Expeditions 317, 318, 320 & 321 are scheduled between November 08 and July 09.
Nobu Eguchi and Toshi Oshima from CDEX and MEXT respectively, gave an update on the status of the CHIKYU. After successfully completing expeditions 314, 315 & 316, the vessel went into dock for inspection, repair and maintenance. Some mechanical failures of bevel gears of azimuth thrusters were found and are being fixed. In FY09, the CHIKYU is scheduled for four months of riser operations. The NanTroSEIZE Stage 2 expedition is scheduled for March-June 2009. For the following years, assuming riser drilling is maximised, the CHIKYU could conduct one riser (five months) and one riserless (2 months) expeditions per year. The number of months of operations per year could change depending on the expeditions’ costs.
Toshi Oshima and James Allan coincided to inform that MEXT and NSF have committed to support a 10 year extension of IODP beyond de current phase.

ESO intended to run New Jersey Shallow Shelf Expedition in May 2008 following its deferment from 2007. Unfortunately, ESO was unable to reach contract agreement to carry out the expedition this year. ESO is now making efforts to agree a firm contract for May 2009 that would guarantee services and a platform.
Addressing the Great Barrier Reef Expedition, Dan Evans reported that permit was granted at end February for 2009. However, core sites are limited to 25 at 7 locations and permit ends 1st November 2009. A notice on the Official Journal of the European Commission has been re-issued, tenders will close on 8th August. Nominations for co-chiefs closed end April, Jody Webster (Australia) has been appointed and Yusuke Yokoyama (Japan) has been invited. The call for Science Party applications will be issued end June.

Gilbert Camoin informed Council that ESSAC is successfully functioning under its new structure (three subcommittees). The involvement of all ESSAC delegates has increased and ESSAC has established a new nomination procedure for all calls. Gilbert Camoin reported on the different alternatives being considered to try to find additional funding for IODP.
ESSAC Office has issued three calls for applications concerning: Canterbury Basin Expedition, Wilkes Land Expedition and NanTroSEIZE Expedition. The staffing is completed for Canterbury Basin Expedition. Gilbert Camoin presented the status of sail applications and quota balance, efforts should be made in some countries to increase the response of the scientific community to the calls.

ECORD Council endorsed ESSAC recommendations for replacements in the following SAS panels:

ECORD Council endorsed the following ESSAC recommendations:

Concerning outreach activities, ECORD Council endorsed ESSAC recommendation to support Urbino and Bremen Summer Schools for 2009. G. Camoin informed Council on the 2008 call for ECORD Scholarships; 44 applications were received from 16 countries, 13 grants were awarded. Regarding the DLP Programme, from September 07 to May 08, the three ECORD lecturers gave talks in 13 ECORD countries and 2 non-ECORD countries. ECORD Council agreed to continue to support these activities in 2009.
With the purpose of summarizing and reviewing major scientific achievements in ocean and continental drilling, the 2008 EuroFORUM was held jointly with ICDP at the European Geosciences Union meeting in Vienna last April. This event was highly attended and linked with the IODP-ICDP Townhall meeting. To maintain the momentum gained at the EuroFORUM 08 and to set-up the basis of an European evaluation of the programme in the forefront of the large IODP conference to be held in Bremen in 2009; ECORD Council endorsed ESSAC recommendation to fund the ECORD Conference 09: ‘Future of IODP - The European perspectives’.
ESSAC reported that in 2008, one IODP Workshop and three Magellan Workshops, will take place in Europe.

EMA informed Council on the ongoing discussions with the Lead Agencies regarding ECORD contributions to IODP, following the significant reduction in ship activities.
EMA informed that EMA–ESO–ESSAC meetings are being organised on a regular basis to coordinate activities.
Catherine Mével informed on the outreach activities developed by EMA. New releases include Newsletter #10, a new ESSAC brochure and a new image brochure to highlight ECORD achievements. This brochure is being developed by DFG through ECORD-Net. ECORD participated in the IODP booth at AGU Fall meeting 2007 and organised the IODP booth at the EGU meeting in Vienna, last April. Together with IODP-Norway, EMA is organising the IODP booth at the IGC meeting in Oslo next August.
EMA presented the ECORD budget situation for FY09 and beyond. Except for Italy and Portugal all the uncertainties have been solved and most ECORD member countries have already paid their contributions for FY08.

ECORD Council tasked ESSAC to prepare the discussion on how to support 3D-site surveys for European-led proposals for the next ECORD Council meeting.

The EMA, ESSAC and ESO budgets for FY09 presented to the Council were approved.The budget approved by the Council will allow ESO to implement New Jersey Shallow Shelf Expedition and the Great Barrier Reef Expedition in 2009 calendar year.

EUROGIA +
Gabriel Marquette presented EUROGIA+ to the Council. EUROGIA+ is a Pan European initiative to help the Oil and Gas Industry and research institutes to work together through transnational collaborative projects. Political and financial support for this programme comes from Public Authorities in Europe and Industry. The Council decided to help establish a link between the EUROGIA group and the ECORD scientists organising the joint ESF-Consortium for Ocean Leadership (IODP USIO) workshop Artic Ocean History: From speculation to reality. This workshop is scheduled in Bremerhaven on November 3-5, 2008.

ERICON-Aurora Borealis Project
Catherine Mével presented the status for the Aurora Borealis Project. The support action ERICON submitted to the EC is funded and ECORD is involved in this project. ERICON will generate the strategic, legal, financial and organisational framework for European Ministries and funding agencies to decide about the construction and running of the first European Research Icebreaker. EMA has the responsibility for facilitating liaison mechanisms for interaction between IODP management structures and the AURORA BOREALIS-ERICON.

ECORD Council decided to continue to develop the strategy for ocean drilling and its involvement in the Deep Sea Frontier Initiative, as well as for the relationships with industry in Europe during the last phase of IODP and beyond. The Executive is tasked to finalise the document initiated by the Vision Group. Final discussion of this document will take place at the next Council meeting.

The Council heartily thanked Stefan Winkler-Ness who has invested himself in promoting and developing the ECORD Vision and the Deep Sea Frontier Initiative, and is now moving to new responsibilities.

Next Council meeting: London, U.K, November 2008.

Participants
ECORD Council members
Reinhard Belocky (Executive)
Austria
Anne de Vernal Canada
Sanna Carlsson Finland
Bruno Goffé (vice-chair) France
Sören Dürr (Executive) Germany
Stefan Winkler (alternate)
Rikke Pedersen Iceland
Armann Höskuldsson
Nigel Wardell (alternate) Italy
Koen Verbruggen Ireland
Raymond M. L. Schorno
Netherlands
Are Carlson Norway
Fernando Barriga Portugal
Severino Falcón Morales (chair) Spain
Dan Holtstam
Sweden
Chris J. Franklin (vice-chair) U.K.
Observers
Catherine Mével EMA
Rosa-Bernal Carrera
Soraya Fernandez
Dan Evans ESO
Gilbert Camoin ESSAC
Olav Eldholm IODP-MI BoG
John Ludden
Daniel Prieur
Gerold Wefer SASEC
Gabriel Marquette Eurogia +
James Allan NSF
Toshi Oshima MEXT
Nobushi Eguchi CDEX/JAMSTEC


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