ECORD Council #4 - Summary / Trieste, 7 June 2004

ECORD Council members from Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and United Kingdom were present. An observer from CNR (Italy), which joined ECORD in April 2004, and an observer from Austria also attended the meeting. Austria confirmed that a decision to join might be taken in the near future. Canada is joining as a provisional member.

EMA reported on the progress made since the last ECORD meeting in Bremen, March 2004. The preparations for the Arctic drilling are in full swing. A contract between the CNRS/INSU and BGS has been prepared and will be signed soon. The launch of the Arctic Coring Expedition-ACEX, which took place in London on June 3, was a very successful event thanks to the efforts of the ACEX outreach team.
Budget issues for FY04 and FY05 were discussed. The decision to support the Tahiti MSP operation in FY05 was confirmed. A provisional budget for EMA and ESSAC was approved. Detailed budgets will be presented to the Council for approval at the next meeting.

ESO reported on the planning of MSP operations. For the ACEX, contracts are now in place with all vessels, including a Russian ice-breaker. The expedition is scheduled to leave Tromsö on August 7th. As part of outreach activities, an ACEX brochure and an article in Planet Earth, entitled "Arctic Challenge" were published and are downloadable from the ECORD web site. After the decision of the SPC to split the Tahiti and Great Barrier reef operations, the planning for Tahiti in FY05 started. It was stated that the contract between INSU-CNRS and BGS should follow the US FY. EMA will start collecting the 2005 contributions as soon as possible after October 1, 2004.

ESSAC reported on progress in nominations for SAS panels and staffing, and presented the updated schedule for riserless operations and science objectives of IODP cruises. ECORD participation in all science panels is assured. Three ECORD scientists are Co-chief scientists (in 6 expeditions, FY04-05). 11 ECORD scientists (including one Co-chief) have been invited to participate in ACEX and six in the Juan de Fuca non-riser expeditions; invitations are in progress for Core Complex 1 & 2 and North Atlantic 1.
ESSAC working group on ECORD proposals will be set up in the near future. Its first action will be to meet in summer: the ESSAC Chair, MacLeod and others from ESSAC and ECORD science community will discuss a EUROCORES proposal for European Collaboration for Ocean Survey Science (EuroCOSS) which is being negotiated by a joint ESSAC - ECORD Council committee with the ESF.

MarineERA-net. R. Schorno will be the ECORD liaison to the ESF Marine Board (he was recently appointed as a member) and to the MarineERA-net which is in the final stage of negotiation with the EC.

ECORD-Net tasks were discussed and the first 6-month Management report was approved and will be posted shortly on the ECORD website.

Council approved Chris Franklin (UK) as member of Executive. J. Bjorck (Sweden) was nominated incoming Vice-chair to replace R. Schorno as of October 1. The Executive as of October 1, 2004 will also include the ECORD Council member from Italy.

It was decided to nominate an alternate for SPPOC, in addition to the four previously nominated members. ESSAC will propose candidates, and ECORD will approve the nomination by e-mail and submit it to IODP.

Next meeting: October, 20-21, 2004, in Bonn, German, possibly a 2-day meeting that will include progress reports on ECORD-Net Tasks


Participants
ECORD Council members
Reinhard Belocky
Austria
Anu Huovinen Finland
John Ludden (Chair) France
Sören Dürr (vice-Chair) Germany
Enrico Bonatti
Italy
Sergio Persoglia (alternate)
Raymond Schorno (vice-Chair) Netherlands
Are Carlson
Norway
José Hippolito Monteiro
Portugal
Chris Franklin
U. K.
Esteban Manrique Reol
Spain
Marcel Kullin
Switzerland
Observers
Catherine Mével
EMA
Svetlana Zolotikova
Dan Evans
ESO
Jeroen Kenter
ESSAC
Maria Luigia Ruscitto
Italy
Andrea Volbers
Germany


Acronyms l Contact us l Databases l IODP l Jobs l Links l Magellan+ l Members l Search l l