699 



13 

 OPERATIONAL PRINCIPLES OF PARTNERSHIPS (ibid.) 



Partnership Formalization - " To avoid misunderstanding and to protect the interests of all 

 participants, partners should define each partnership formally, in writing." 



An outstanding and enduring example of this principle of formalism is the National Ice 

 Center (NIC) (Appendix IV.F.). In this case. Federal agencies exclusively, have 

 established the philosophy and process for managing a critical marine operation. From 

 the beginning, the formal establishment and documentation of NIC was recognized by 

 all parties as critical to its survival and success. ; 



Merit-Based Decisions - "Creating new models of... partnerships capable of responding 

 effectively to a changing science and technology environment requires that resources be allocated 

 on the basis of which partner or interested party can best perform the task at hand.. Scarce 

 resources must be applied where they are most likely to produce the greatest return on public 

 investments and the broadest-based benefits." 



The example of state-Federal-academic partnership embodied by the Sea Grant College 

 Program (Appendix IV.G.) demonstrates the effectiveness of technical review and merit- 

 based decisions. The definition of "merit", which is contentious, must be clear from the 

 start. In the case of Sea Grant, merit is determined on the basis of technical quality of 

 proposed research, as well as relevance to the palette of NOAA missions. 



Flexibility - "Flexibility, within general guidelines to ensure accountability is needed to foster 

 experimentation and innovation. " 



Oceanography, by virtue of being a relatively new and young field, must be 

 characterized by flexible approaches. In terms of oceanographic partnerships this 

 flexibility to continuously fold in new partners is demor\strated very effectively in a 

 new partnership of academia and industry (sponsored by the Federal government) in 

 the Ocean Technology Center at the University of Rhode Island (Appendix IV.H.). The 

 concept of flexibility as a principle of partnerships is especially important for ocean 

 sciences now, when the community is starting to adapt its research to a new range of 

 applications. 



Cost-Sharing - "Partnerships are more effective when each individual partner has a financial 

 investment^ in the conduct and outcome of the program." 



Within the educational arena of oceanography there has long been recognition that the 

 missioris of many agencies can be supported with educational campaigns. Nonetheless 

 there are only a few examples of educational partnerships in which there is substantive 

 cost-sharing. One highly successful example of cost-sharing by multiple government 

 agencies is the program entitled "Operation Pathfinder" (Appendix IV.I.). Interestingly, 

 this particular partnership, in which NOAA, the US Navy and the Department of the 

 Interior share all costs, is also a good example of the principle of diversity of interests. 



Investment is assumed to include in-kind costs, sucJi as waived overhead costs or contribution of labor. 



