Collaboration will focus on new technologies for studying the marine environment.
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UCSD Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), and BP America Inc. announce the signing of a three-year, $3 million-dollar partnership, marking the beginning of a long-term research collaboration. The initial focus of the program is to develop and evaluate new technologies to image and characterize the seafloor and subseafloor. Using a wide variety of surveying techniques such as electromagnetics, fiber optics, acoustics, autonomous underwater vehicles and ocean bottom seismographs, Scripps and BP scientists will further improve our understanding of the seabed and the processes that shape it.
The seabed is a dynamic environment, shaped by tides, storms, earthquakes and other factors. This research will enable BP to understand better the magnitude of these changes, leading to the improved design of offshore facilities. The innovative instrumentation and technologies will also be useful in new academic ocean observing programs well beyond this partnership. The partnership is part of a strategy at Scripps to work closely with the private sector in areas where there are mutual interests. Investment from BP will enable Scripps to pioneer new technological development that is very difficult to fund through more traditional federal agencies.
The collaboration broadens the base of institutional funding for Scripps, and provides educational opportunities for Scripps students interested in careers in ocean sciences. For BP, the partnership allows one of the world’s largest energy companies to collaborate with the world’s largest oceanographic institution with a breadth and depth of expertise that would otherwise be unavailable to them. In some areas of collaboration, industrial investments have produced capabilities well beyond those found in universities. In other cases, university researchers have developed approaches that industry is eager to apply. The project is similar in concept to other BP partnerships with Cambridge University, Princeton University and the California Institute of Technology.