ECORD Council #18 - Summary / Paris, 17-18 November 2010

The meeting was hosted by Mireille Perrin (Chair) in the new building of the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (IPGP), France.

To improve continuity, ECORD Council decided to extend the term of the Chair to one year. Mireille Perrin will therefore continue as Chair until September 30, 2011. Guido Lüniger will continue as outgoing Vice-chair until March 31, 2011, when an incoming Vice-chair is appointed. Until March 31, 2011, the ECORD Executive will consist of Mireille Perrin, France (Chair), Guido Lüniger, Germany (Vice-chair), Anne de Vernal (Canada), Mike Webb (UK), and Jose Ramon Sanchez Quintana (Spain).

Dr. Kiyoshi Suyehiro, President of IODP-MI, presented the last draft of the IODP Annual Program Plan 2011, which is yet to be approved by the Board of Governors and the Lead Agencies. Dr Suyehiro presented the FY11 IODP budget and also gave an overview of the planning scenarios for FY12-13, indicating that the FY12 schedules for the JOIDES Resolution and Chikyu are almost finalised but the MSP programme is still under discussion. He presented the Scientific Earth Drilling Information System (SEDIS), a database portal that will be completed by IODP-MI in the near future.
Dr Suyehiro updated the Council on the status of the procedures for proposal submission to IODP as of October 1, 2010, and presented statistics about participation in expeditions. The involvement of ECORD is quite strong.
Finally Dr Suyehiro gave an overview on the Mohole project and indicated that the scoping will start soon. He informed Council that comments from the community on the New Science Plan have been passed to the Science Plan Writing Committee. The final document will published next spring.
IODP-MI is organising the IODP booth and IODP Townhall meeting at the AGU 2010 in December in San Francisco.

Gerold Wefer, IODP-MI Board of Governors (BoG), reported on the last meeting held in June in Kyoto. The main points addressed were the role of the BoG as part of the CMO in the future program and the BoG motion on the ECORD request to withhold a part of the SOC contribution to fund a second MSP before the end of the program. For the first time in IODP, ECORD was offered the chair of the BoG (next BoG election in June 2011).

Jan de Leeuw reported on the last SASEC meeting held in Kyoto in June 2010. SASEC is involved in the preparation of the next phase. Following the recommendations of the Triennium Review committee, a sub-committee of SASEC has drafted the terms of reference for each of the new SAS panels for consideration by IWG+. The direction is towards simplification and a streamlined proposal evaluation process. Explanations were given on how the proposal handling will work from the new SAS to the future SAS during the transition phase.  
The Science Plan Writing Committee is currently finalising the third draft of the Science Plan for the post-2013 program. A science writer has been appointed to refine the draft prior to review by a  “Blue ribbon panel” (not set up yet).

Catherine Mével presented EMA activities. She summarised ECORD outreach activities. ECORD Newsletter #15 is now posted on the ECORD website and will be distributed to the scientific community at the AGU Fall meeting in San Francisco. EMA will soon release the 2011 ECORD calendar. EMA provided support to several national activities and meetings (e.g. Canada and Ireland). Finally, a summary of all outreach resources available to ECORD member countries was presented.

C. Mével also reported on the MOHO project and the 2 workshops held this year (respectively in Kanazawa and Washington D.C.) to address technological challenges and raise interest from the broader community. She gave an overview on the GOLD (Gulf of Lion Drilling) Magellan Workshop Series held in October in Banyuls, France, to discuss a deep drilling project in the Western Mediterranean that could potentially be implemented with the Chikyu within the future program.

Robert Gatliff gave an update on ESO and mission-specific platform (MSP) activities. The Great Barrier Reef Environmental Changes (GBREC) expedition completed operations on April 6, 2010 (started on February 11, 2010) The Onshore Science Party took place at the Bremen Core Repository from July 2 to 16. The IODP Preliminary Report was published on August 30, 2010 and is available on-line. The review of the operation is planned for late February/early March 2011. R. Gatliff presented the MSP plans for the remainder of the program. No MSP expedition is currently planned for FY11. The pool of MSPs proposals residing at the Operation Task Force needs to be investigated prior to setting up the MSP program for FY12-13. 

Rüdiger Stein reported on ESSAC activities. Report from the last SPC-OTF-PMO meetings mainly focused on the ships schedules for the remainder of the program (FY11-FY13) as discussed at the last SPC and OTF meetings and the issue of the proposal handling during the transition phase. A new Joint IODP-ICDP Program Planning Group (PPG) for Climate-Hominid Evolution research 'Understanding of climate influence of hominids evolution' is being set up. The new SAS was discussed and a series of issues were raised: among them the election/composition of the panels. R. Stein summarised the current situation regarding quotas and staffing and some discrepancy remains between ECORD member countries
The second phase of the ECORD Distinguished Lecturer Programme 2008-2010 has ended successfully, and three new lecturers have been appointed. The first call to host a lecture was issued on June 30, 2010 with a deadline of September 2010. However, ESSAC still encourages further submissions.
R. Stein informed the Council that ESSAC is organising a special Interdivision Session at EGU 2011, dealing with major achievements and perspectives in ocean and continental drilling.

Catherine Mével reported on the ECORD Industrial Liaison Panel (ECORD-ILP). The list of the panel members was introduced. A new brochure entitled "Scientific Drilling in the Arctic Ocean" has been prepared by Dayton Dove (UK IODP Science Co-ordinator) and will be distributed to all industry contacts to raise interest in academia/industry cooperation in the Arctic. A workshop on scientific drilling in the Arctic will be organised on 2011. 

Maria Ask and John Thorogood, Vice-chair and delegate of the Engineering Development Panel (EDP) respectively, gave an overview on how EDP currently functions. Engineering development represents a high priority challenge for the future in science ocean drilling. The Engineering Development process was described as well as the Technology roadmap on which it relies. They raised concerns about the current plan for restructuring of the SAS, which suggests involving engineering experts only on a ad hoc basis. They insisted on the need for maintaining a standing committee for engineering development.  Their concern was endorsed by ECORD Council and will be conveyed to IWG+.

Catherine Mével reported on the Magellan Steering Committee held in Burkheim, Germany on August 17-20, 2010. The committee met to discuss the future of the Magellan Workshop Series, which ends in August 2011. The current programme has been acknowledged by ECORD as a useful instrument to stimulate development of new science proposals in marine drilling expeditions. C. Mével outlined that the current ESSAC members mostly populate the steering committee. The outcome of the meeting was to propose a new programme, Magellan Plus, with a broader scope, including both continental and oceanic drilling. However, ESF is currently being restructured and at this stage there is no opportunity to submit a proposal. Hopefully, the situation will be clarified soon.

Catherine Mével reported on the progress of the ERICON-Aurora Borealis (AB) Project. The operation costs of the vessel have been thoroughly evaluated. A scientific workshop will be organised to establish a Long Term Science Plan (2015-2030). Discussions are ongoing about managements such as proposal evaluation, legal structure, etc.  At this stage, there is not yet funding commitment from potential partners. A business plan will be finalised in 2011 and submitted to the Ministries for consideration.

Catherine Mével informed Council on progress of the ECORD activities directly linked with the European Commission (EC). Presently, ECORD is visible to the EC through the EC funded DS3F project. At the EurOCEAN 2010 meeting, held in Ostend on October 12-13, 2010, ECORD and DS3F manned a joint booth. During this highly political European event, the DS3F coordinator Achim Kopf was invited to give a presentation. C. Mével presented information on the upcoming DS3F workshop (February 2011, Grenoble, France) dedicated to technology improvement for Sub Seafloor Sampling and Instrumentation. She also mentioned that she was invited to present the current situation of ECORD at an ERA-Net meeting in Brussels (November 8, 2010). The Council feels that it is important to maintain contact with the EC.

Uli Harms presented the 2010 status and progress of ICDP. He gave an overview on the recent workshops and drilling projects implemented by ICDP.  He emphasised that lake drilling is complementary to ECORD shallow-water drilling projects. The ECORD Council expressed their strong interest in supporting further cooperation with ICDP to facilitate the handling of proposals for joint and related projects, and for extending cooperation in education and outreach.

ECORD Council continued the discussion regarding the future of ocean drilling both at the international and at the ECORD level. Recommendations on the architecture and funding of the new program to be conveyed to IWG+ were approved. An ECORD business plan for the next year is being prepared. An independent committee has been appointed to evaluate the ECORD accomplishments within IODP. The report will be submitted at the next ECORD Council meeting. These documents will be submitted to the ECORD funding agencies for consideration in 2011. The ECORD partners are expected to submit an expression of interest to participate in the new phase of ocean drilling before the end of 2011.
Next ECORD Council meeting:


Next Council meeting: May 31-June 1, 2011, Montréal, Canada 
Participants
ECORD Council members/alternates
Jean-Pierre Henriet Belgium
Anne de Vernal (Vice-chair) Canada
Heidi Elberling Denmark
Jenni Virtanen Finland
Mireille Perrin (Chair) France
Guido Lüniger (Vice-chair) Germany
Koen Verbruggen Ireland
Josef Stuefer The Netherlands
Oyvind Pettersen Norway
Fernando Barriga Portugal
José Ramon Sanchez Quintana Spain
Dan Holtstam
Sweden
Martina Kern-Lütschg Switzerland
Mike Webb The United Kingdom
Observers
Catherine Mével EMA
Mohammed Amine Benchikh
Robert Gatliff ESO
Rüdiger Stein ESSAC
Kyoshi Suyehiro IODP-MI
Mathilde Cannat IODP BoG
Gerold Wefer
Maria Ask EDP
John Thorogood
Jan de Leeuw SASEC
Uli Harms ICDP


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