BUILDING AN INTEGRATED SCIENCE PROGRAM: NOAA OCEAN EXPLORATION PROPOSAL PROCESS

by Potter, Jeremy

Though the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), through programs such as Vents, the National Undersea Research Program (NURP), and the Sustainable Sea Expeditions (SSE), has been exploring the oceans for years, it was just over two years ago that a central office was designated to lead NOAA’s ocean discovery efforts. The Office of Ocean Exploration (OE) is charged with searching, investigating, and documenting unknown and poorly known areas of the ocean. OE uses interdisciplinary expeditions as the primary vehicle to advance and disseminate knowledge of the ocean environment.

I was charged with helping to develop the procedures, tools, and tracking capability to efficiently and accurately move submissions through the FY03 process. Besides improving the OE FY03 review process, this Masters Project, comprised of a set of proposal process management documents for OE, will be used as a working set of tools to be revised and improved upon in future years. These may also serve as an example for other funding programs interested in better organizing and documenting their review processes.