wide variations in national approaches to science support makes it 

 difficult to tabulate these additional costs, but the range appears to be 

 from about 50 to 100% of the cost of the operational contribution. Thus, 

 the current full cost for a single country to take part in OOP is about $4 

 to 5 million per year. 



In the case of the United States, NSF provides the U.S. contribution to the 

 joint program -- currently about $22 million per year -- and also funds the 

 separate U.S. science program for OOP. The latter is handled through 

 peer-reviewed research proposals and a service contract with an academic 

 consortium which is the coordinating center for the U.S. community. 



The only formal international coordinating mechanism established under the 

 MOU's is the GDP Council. No counterpart for the OOP Council existed 

 during the DSOP era. The foreign partners felt this to be a serious 

 omission. They argued that there should be a governmental consultative 

 body which would periodically review the general progress of the program 

 and discuss financial plans and other management issues. 



The Council is the only body in GDP which recognizes nations per se: 

 countries which participate in OOP as members of a consortium may elect to 

 attend Council in their own right or be represented by someone acting for 

 the consortium. Since the Council is strictly a consultative body, there 

 are no provisions for voting. The Council held its second annual meeting 

 here in Washington just a few days ago, June 5-6. So far, it has proven to 

 be a valuable means of communication and a useful forum for an early airing 

 of concerns and problems before they become critical. 



JOIDES: THE DRIVING SCIENTIFIC FORCE 



Membership in OOP is a dual process: in addition to signing an MOU with 

 the NSF, participants must be members of JGIOES. JOIDES is the 

 international association which has provided scientific direction and 

 planning to both the OSDP and the GDP. The Terms of Reference of JGIDES 

 define members as: 



"...representatives of oceanographic and marine research 

 institutions or other organizations which have a major interest in the 

 study of the sea floor and an adequate capability in terms of 

 scientific manpower and facilities to carry out such studies." 



This admittedly subjective criterion has nonetheless worked well as a 

 filter. 



JOIDES has only a single class of membership. Periodic recommendations for 

 "Associate" or other secondary membership arrangements have been rejected. 

 The members feel that scientific authority and responsibility are absolute, 

 and that equality is an essential and indivisible manifestation of that 

 condition. In 1982, for the first time, JOIDES agreed to consider a 

 consortium as a member, thus providing a way for smaller countries to take 

 part. But any consortium must present itself to JGIDES as a single entity 

 and act with one voice in the organization. Current JGIDES membership 

 consists of ten U.S. oceanographic institutions and the lead agency or 

 designated institution for each of the four international members. 3 



