Virginia Gewin, WashingtonUS researchers are drawing up a wish-list of requirements for an Integrated OceanObserving System (IOOS), which they hopewill radically strengthen the tools availablefor studying the world’s oceans.

A group of 110 academics, governmentscientists and other researchers met in Warrenton, Virginia, earlier this month tohammer out a consensus on their prioritiesfor the system.

The project has the firm backing of seniormembers of the Bush administration. And,because their input was requested by a Senatecommittee, oceanographers are optimisticthat funds — perhaps several hundred million dollars in the first few years — will be made available. “The IOOS is an ideawhose time has come,” says Lou Codispoti,an Arctic Ocean researcher at the Universityof Maryland’s Horn Point Laboratory.

Researchers hope that, if approved, theIOOS will serve as a reliable, comprehensivesource of ocean data, similar to the existingNational Weather Service. Informationwould be gathered from buoys, satellites andships, and would be available to everyone,from military planners to marine biologists.The data obtained would be relevant toissues such as climate change, forecasts ofcoastal conditions, and the status of fisheries.

The IOOS would have two components,dealing with the open ocean and with UScoastal regions, respectively. It would alsoserve as the US component of the GlobalOcean Observing System, an internationalproject that is currently being implemented.

“We are in the midst of a real revolution ofhow oceanography is conducted,” explainsTom Malone, co-chair of the US GlobalOcean Observing System Steering Commit-tee. Malone is also joint leader of the IOOSplanning efforts.

Advocates of the system say that it willhelp to transform oceanography, allowingmeasurements to be repeated easily overtime. “The fundamental problem we faceright now,” says Malone, “is that each piece ofthe existing system was developed by a par-ticular agency for a particular purpose, sothere’s an awful lot of redundancy and at thesame time we’re not getting the informationwe need.”

Participants at the meeting discussed thelimitations of current data networks, hownew technology might be incorporated, andthe logistics of putting new systems in place.A topic of particular interest, say meetingattendees, was the question of how to main-tain and disseminate the volume of data thatthe IOOS is likely to collect. Another prioritywould be incorporating biological and chem-ical sensors into existing networks of buoys,built primarily for physical oceanography.

The conclusions of the workshop will be fed into a larger, interagency report to be sent to Congress this summer. This reportwill include cost estimates for the system,which Malone and others have so far declinedto specify.

The US Commission on Ocean Policy,established early last year, is also expected toreport in the summer on US national oceanstrategy.

The commission’s chair is Admiral JamesWatkins, a former president of the Consor-tium for Oceanographic Research and Education (CORE), the main lobby groupfor ocean research. Watkins is publicly

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committed to the creation of the IOOS.Another advocate is Admiral Conrad Lautenbacher, administrator of the NationalOceanic and Atmospheric Administration(NOAA), the US government’s main civilianocean research agency. Lautenbacher saysthat “there is no achievement too great toimagine from such a system being in placeand working”.

Academic scientists have one big concernabout the system — that its creation will eatinto their grant funding from the NationalScience Foundation and other researchagencies. “We’re talking about making thecase for new money,” says Malone. ■

Sea scouts plan big splash for oceanography

Sally Goodman, ParisLionel Jospin, the French socialist primeminister, has pledged a new deal for youngresearchers if he is elected president.

Speaking at Genopole, the science parkin Evry, near Paris, on 13 March, Jospinpromised to improve conditions for PhDstudents by providing an increased stipendand better career training. He also outlineda proposal to offer researchers permanentpositions after two years of postdoctoralwork, much earlier than is now the case.

“Increasing the number of posts is notenough to encourage young people toconsider research careers if they have tospend years in postdoctoral positions,”Jospin said. He also promised to reduce theteaching loads of new university researchers,and to give bigger grants to teams withyoung leaders.

In addition, he pledged to reorganize theadministration of research, creating a newministry to deal with research, technologyand higher education. Jospin had put

research under the control of a separateministry after the sacking in March 2000 of education and research minister ClaudeAllègre, whose reform attempts sparked arebellion in the research community (seeNature 404, 421; 2000).

Some researchers have still not forgivenJospin for standing too long by Allègre, ageochemist at the Paris Geophysical Institute,who is still close to Jospin.

Jospin added that he would try toincrease the amount of French grossdomestic product that is spent on researchand development to 3%, in line with apromise made by European leaders last week.

The two-round presidential elections, on21 April and 5 May, pitch Jospin againstJacques Chirac, the conservative incumbent.Legislature elections follow in June, andcould end a stand-off between Chirac andthe legislature’s socialist-dominatedcoalition. Observers say that a president andgovernment of the same party would speedmuch-needed research reforms. ■

Jospin reaches out to researchers

Looking to youth: presidential hopeful Lionel Jospin meets scientists during his visit to Genopole.

AFP

© 2002 Macmillan Magazines Ltd