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To: The Honorable Solomon P. Ortiz 



Chainnan, Subcommittee on Oceanography, 

 Gulf of Mexico, and the Outer Continental Shelf 



From: P. J. Fox 



Chair, Deep Submergence Science Committee 

 UNOLS 



Subject Answers to questions about the National Undersea 

 Research Program (NURP) 



Date: May 6, 1993 



Question #1: Is the $16 million appropriated last year for NURP adequate to support the 

 undersea research needs of the U.S. civilian undersea research community? 



In order to £rame my response, let me first offer a few salient observations. 



• $16 million is approximately equal to the amount that the Oceanography 

 Directorate at NSF spends, excluding shiptime, on each of the major oceanographic 

 disciplinary themes (e.g. marine biology, chemistry, physics and geology). This is to say 

 that $16 million is a relatively large number in terms of support levels for oceanographic 

 research. 



• The NURP centers have been set up over the years in response to political 

 concerns/interests to satisfy the research needs of specific regions. This means that their 

 location, research emphasis and overall direction has been developed in the absence of an 

 overarching national plait 



• The NURP National office has endeavored to place the work done by the 

 Regional Centers into major research categories (e.g. global change, material flux, marine 

 productivity) that are fundamental in nature and have instituted a peer review process 

 (modeled after NSF) that has raised the standards of research conducted by the NURP 

 centers. 



With the above observations in mind, I offer the opinion that the NURP centers are 

 well funded and are carrying out important research. 1 believe, however, that the NURP 

 centers would be even more effective if the NURP centers would become part of the 

 Administration's budget This change would diminish the opportunity for earmarking, a 

 process that flies in the face of a national research plan and peer-review driven science. In 

 addition, the NURP centers focus largely on research carried out in shallow water (<1000 

 ft). Only a small portion of the NURP budget (approximately 1 million) is directed toward 

 research in the deep sea; this is the support that goes to the operation of ALVLN, to support 



