ECORD Council #9 - Summary / Bonn, 27-28 November 2006

The meeting was hosted by the German Research Foundation, and chaired by Sören Dürr.

The ECORD Executive as of 1st October 2006 consists of S. Dürr (chair), M. Kullin (vice chair), R. Schorno (vice chair), C. Mével (EMA), S. Persoglia (Italy), and C. Franklin (UK). Bruno Goffé has been nominated incoming vice-chair and will replace M. Kullin on the Executive as of 1st April 2007.

ESSAC reported on the schedule of the drill ships. The delay on the refit of the SODV will likely postpone the return of the vessel to scientific operations to at least January 2008. A likely consequence would be the rescheduling of the Equatorial Pacific to September 2008, and postponement of the Part 2 to FY09-10. The new schedule is to be confirmed by USIO in January 2007. However the staffing of both expeditions continues in the original schedule. The CHIKYU is expected to commence scientific operations on schedule in September 2007.
ESSAC reported that contact with Magellan Steering Committee has been established and liaisons identified. However no such contact has been made yet for EuroMARC. The Council recommends that ESF provides ESSAC the opportunity for strategic input into EuroMARC.

ESSAC presented a programme for activities in 2007 including: The ECORD council endorsed this programme and allocated a budget to support these activities. In 2007, the summer school will consist of the Urbino Summer School and a school held at the Bremen Core Repository, attached to the IODP Topical Symposium on paleoclimates. The council recommended involving non ECORD European scientists/universities in these activities to promote IODP.
ECORD Council requests ESSAC to issue an open call for summer schools in subsequent years (provided funds are available to Council to support a school).

The ECORD Council endorsed the ESSAC recommendations for the following IODP committees and panels: ESSAC reported on the simultaneous staffing of 5 expeditions. ESSAC considers the quantity and quality of ECORD applicants excellent. 38% of the total applicants come from ECORD. The Council applauded the efforts made by ESSAC to manage the applications processes and recommended to keep a balance in the participation of experienced and young scientists.

ECORD Evaluation Committee. The chair, Peter Styles, reported on the work of the committee and presented the first draft of the report. The council congratulated Peter Styles for the work accomplished. The report should be ready by the end of the year.

ESO reported on the scientific impact of ACEX IODP Expedition 302: 4 papers published in Nature and hundreds of related stories generated.
For the next MSP New Jersey Shallow Shelf Expedition, it is intended to use a jack-up platform with limited accommodation space. There are still three major issues to solve before contract signing: geotechnical surveys, permits, and confirm platform availability. Co-chiefs for this expedition: Greg Mountain (USA) and Steven Hesselbo (UK) have been invited. The science party is complete and includes 9 ECORD scientists. The aim is May 07 to start offshore.
Referring to the MSP scheduling after FY07, ESO indicates that there is continued need for high-quality MSP Proposals. At this time only two are highly ranked in the IODP system. ESO has started working on the Great Barrier Reef proposal. It still lacks a site survey, which is scheduled for the fall of 2007. The aim is to implement this project in the fall of 2008.

ECORD Council discussed the role of E&O in IODP-MI. ECORD Council considers education as a national responsibility with no SOC funding but the Council believes that if there is no integration and central policy in outreach within IODP, it will be to the detriment of the program.

EMA presented an update on SODV. Due to the increased price of all activities related with the oil industry, the original budget allocated by NSF to the refit of the JR will not be enough for the execution of the initial plan. As a consequence, it is necessary to revise the plan, and this will likely cause a delay. The CHIKYU has completed 80% of the planned activities at the shakedown cruise. Now the CHIKYU will start operations under a contract with an Australian company. CDEX still plan to deliver the ship to IODP in September 2007.
EMA informed that the Lead Agencies are expecting information about ECORD funding for the second phase of IODP at the IODP Council at the latest (June 2007).
EMA informed on the E&O activities developed by EMA. New releases include Newsletter #7 and a brochure on the accomplishments of ECORD during the first phase of IODP. ECORD will be present on the IODP booth at AGU, in December, and will organise the IODP booth at the EGU meeting in Vienna, next April.
EMA informed that in cooperation with the ESSAC office, the database on the ECORD scientific contribution to IODP is been developed.

The EMA, ESO and ESSAC FY07 budgets presented to the Council were approved, with some changes for ESSAC’s budget. The ECORD member countries presented the situation at the national level regarding the 60% increase in the contribution which will occur in FY08. There are still uncertainties in most of the countries: decisions will be made generally in the first half of 2007.

Alan Edwards presented the actual situation of the 7th Framework Programme regarding the Marine Research. The European Deep Sea Frontier Project could be launched at mid FP7.  The council designated a delegation to meet with key individuals at the European Commission early next year.

ECORD Council decided to call for an exceptional Council meeting in February 2007 to discuss:

Next Council meeting: Brussels, Belgium, 27 February 2007.

Participants
ECORD Council members
Reinhard Belocky
Austria
Anders Kjaer Denmark
Jan Bäckman Finland
Eija Kanto (alternate)
Elisabeth Köhler (alternate) France
Sören B. Dürr (Executive, Chair) Germany
Ingibjörg Elsa Björnsdóttir (alternate) Iceland
Xavier Monteys (alternate) Ireland
Raymond M. L. Schorno (vice-Chair)
Netherlands
Are Birge Carlson (Executive) Norway
Fernando Barriga
Portugal
Severino Falcón Morales (alternate) Spain
Dan Holtstam
Sweden
Jonas Björck (alternate)
Teresa Bingham-Muller (alternate)
Switzerland
Chris J. Franklin U.K.
Observers
Catherine Mével EMA
Rosa Bernal-Carrera
Dan Evans ESO
Chris MacLeod (chair)
ESSAC Office
Amelie Winkler
ECORD-Net
Peter Styles ECORD Review Committee
Gerold Wefer SASEC & IODP-MI BoG
Alan Edwards E.C.
Bernard Avril ESF
Paul Egerton European Polar Consortium


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