UC Ship Funds for R/V Roger Revelle

Academic Staff and Students in Marine Science at SIO, UCSB and UCSC

SUBJECT: Policy - Ship Time Funded by the University of California for R/V Roger Revelle

Whereas most of the budget for the operation of Scripps ships is provided by federal agencies, a portion is provided by the State of California for support of research and teaching on R/V Roger Revelle by SIO, UCSB and UCSC marine science staff members. A panel of the SIO Marine Operations Committee, advisory to the Associate Director, SIO, has been established to review requests for use of a portion of these state funds and to recommend funding actions. For purposes of considering R/V Roger Revelle requests the panel is augmented by the MOC members from UCSB and UCSC. The panel has established the following guidelines for procedures, policies and priorities:

1. Highest priority will be given to student training cruises, by which is meant cruises that are conducted as teaching efforts in the context of a formal UCSD, UCSB or UCSC course. Because UC ship funds are very limited, the panel wishes to be assured that cruises claiming this top priority actually fit the category. Thus proposals in this category should give assurance that the course will register the minimum number of students (four) required by University rules and that this minimum number will go to sea. Such evidence could take the form of hard enrollment data, of enrollment experience with similar courses in previous years, of preliminary contacts with students interested in signing up for a proposed course, etc. The panel is looking for good-faith assurance by practical means, not a rigid procedure.

2. A high priority will be given to the support of projects by graduate students and postgraduate fellows. However, the panel expects that the faculty advisor will make a reasonable effort to support such research through outside grants. These requests must include a brief statement as to why outside support is unavailable and must be countersigned by the advisor.

3. An equally high priority will be given to the support of projects by new staff, especially for programs that have promise of generating their own support from federal agencies in subsequent years.

4. A lower priority will be given to the support of other worthy projects by SIO, UCSB and UCSC staff. Proposals in this category include those to utilize a transit leg of an expedition, to test a new idea before submitting a proposal, or to use UC ship funds as matching funds for a proposal.

Funding for ship use will receive highest priority, but ancillary funding for expenses related to proposed cruises will be considered.

Requests for UC-Revelle ship funds will require submission of a written proposal to the UC Ship Funds Panel of the Marine Operations Committee, preferably at the same time that a scheduling request is submitted to the SIO Ship Scheduling Office. This proposal should describe briefly the cruise plan, the scientific rationale, the likely participants and relevant priority considerations
(#1 - 4 above).

If warranted by the numbers of requests received, the UC Ship Funds Panel generally will meet during the first half of each quarter to consider proposals for the following quarter or later. If pending requests are lacking, or are few and straightforward, the Panel may omit a meeting or conduct its business by correspondence in lieu of a meeting. To maximize the chance of being funded, a proposal must be received by the panel one week before a meeting/correspondence. Submit requests marked "Attention of the UC Ship Funds Panel" to

SIO Ship Scheduling Office
SIO 0210
UCSD
9500 Gilman Dr.
La Jolla, CA 92093-0210

619-534-2840
619-822-5811 (fax)
shipsked@ucsd.edu

E-mail submissions are fully acceptable and preferable to paper submissions.

Some requests will be unanticipated (for instance, requests for ship time to recover recently lost gear, or to capitalize on an unanticipated change of ship schedules). These will be handled on a case by case basis, when received by the panel.

In a typical year, some few tens of days of ship time on R/V Roger Revelle may be available for award under the above process. This will vary depending on other uses of the total UC-Revelle funding, e.g. for ship equipment.

Because the annual schedule of R/V Roger Revelle usually will be driven by national-level, federally-funded considerations, and because schedules of large, global ships like Revelle tend to become firm sooner than the schedules of small, local vessels, requesting PIs should stay cognizant of emerging draft schedules, which are routinely updated on the World Wide Web (http://www.sio.ucsd.edu/supp_groups/shipsked/). The most significant date is the NSF Ocean Sciences target date of February 15, the last date for NSF proposals for ship use in the subsequent calendar year. After this target date information about the distribution of proposed projects will begin to come into focus, and draft schedules and tracks for Revelle and other large ships will begin to firm up. It is unlikely that UC-Revelle funds requests not reviewed by the UC Ship Funds Panel meeting in the spring of a year will be amenable to inclusion in the following year's schedule, unless they happen to fall more or less neatly along the schedule/track of the federally-supported work. To maximize the chance of obtaining UC funds, a proposal must be received by the panel one week before the appropriate meeting.

The global and heavily federal nature of R/V Revelle schedules also means that the funding priorities 1-4 above will be tempered by schedule constraints. PIs therefore should not assume that priority 1 will always win over priority 4; the schedule may not lend itself to priority 1. PIs should propose good ideas in all four priorities. The UC Ship Funds Panel then will have to weigh priorities in the light of schedule realities.

Robert A. Knox
Associate Director, SIO