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UK IODP

Announcement of Opportunity for Small Grants & Site Survey Investigations (SSIs)

Closing date: 14 March 2008

To support UK membership in the international Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP), NERC runs a UK Research Programme to enable: (1) UK scientists to ensure that IODP carries out the best and highest priority science, (2) UK scientists to participate in and obtain material from drilling legs, and (3) UK scientists to capitalise on the results of IODP drilling and UK technologies, allowing them to benefit from technological advances in deep sea drilling.

In this Announcement of Opportunity funding applications are sought under three headings:

1. Outline Bids for Ship-Borne Site Survey Investigations
2. Full proposals for 'Virtual' Site Surveys
3. Full proposals for IODP Small Grants

Any proposed project will be expected to build on existing research efforts within IODP and expected outputs should include high profile scientific paper(s) and/or further proposals.

Site surveys

The success of IODP depends on the development of drilling proposals. In order to be successful, a drilling proposal should have outstanding science objectives and it is also imperative that the geology of the drill site is sufficiently well known to demonstrate that the objectives are feasible, and that the drilling will be safe. The latter two requirements depend on the availability of adequate site surveys, which usually include crossing seismic reflection lines and a range of geology specific additional observations. UK IODP has allocated funding towards Site Survey Investigations for the collection/interpretation of geological data in support of UK-led drilling proposals. For further information on the IODP Science Programme and drilling proposals see the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (international) and the Site Survey Data Bank websites.

The total funding available under this round is a £0·6m for categories B and C (this being NERC's 80% contribution to full economic costs, and including indexation). The funding available for category A will be confirmed once outline bids have been considered. Applicants should contact Sasha Leigh for details.

Please see the Announcement of Opportunity document for full details of the call and the two documents covering general guidance for Site Surveys.

Announcement of Opportunity (full call)

Site Survey Guide
IODP Matrix