Opening of the Scientific Coordination Office for the U.S. Scientific Ocean Drilling Program

At the end of February, the National Science Foundation (NSF) Division for Ocean Sciences issued the award for the Scientific Ocean Drilling Coordination Office (SODCO).

SODCO will facilitate the goals of the U.S. scientific ocean drilling program and serve as a hub for community scientists. Led by Director of SODCO Mitchell Malone, Director of Science Support Angela Slagle, and Director of Science Operations Leah LeVay, the SODCO is a collaboration
between Texas A&M University (TAMU) and the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO). SODCO at TAMU will assist principal investigators with creating drilling proposals; identify suitable drilling platforms, coring, and logging tools; work with the scientific community to advance new technologies; and plan and implement expeditions. SODCO at LDEO will provide research community support services for successful planning and execution of expeditions, including pre-drilling activities, planning and training workshops, and science communications.

SODCO will be guided by a community advisory board and two panels to provide safety and environmental protection and foster innovation in engineering and technology development. As the new Coordination Office moves forward, they will provide more information to the community about SODCO-related activities.

SODCO will also provide support for a new Site Survey Data Bank (SSDB) at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the current Logging Database (LogDB) at LDEO, and all drilling proposals from U.S. based scientists will be submitted to NSF’s U.S. Scientific Ocean Drilling Program (also called the Subseafloor Sampling Program or S3P). Information on proposal submissions will be detailed in a forthcoming solicitation from NSF. The SODCO leadership team are happy to receive questions from scientists interested in working with U.S. based scientists on drilling proposals for NSF.

For more information and any questions about SODCO, please contact Mitchell Malone (malone@tamu.edu),  Angela Slagle (aslagle@ldeo.columbia.edu), or Leah LeVay (leahlevay@tamu.edu).