UK Integrated Ocean Drilling Programme

The UK is a member of the international Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) as part of the European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling (ECORD). Through multidisciplinary, international collaboration, IODP aims to explore the history and structure of the Earth as recorded in sub-seafloor sediments and rocks. The programme officially began in October 2003 and is made up of an international partnership of scientists and research institutions, building upon the earlier successes of the Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) and Ocean Drilling Program (ODP), which revolutionised our view of Earth history and global processes through ocean basin exploration.

The UK-IODP is a NERC directed research programme which supports UK participation in IODP:

• Fund membership in IODP through ECORD;
• Facilitate participation of UK scientists in IODP expeditions and research;
• Make UK scientists, industry, and stakeholders aware of opportunities, and results of IODP-related research;
• Provide grant support to enable UK scientists to exploit the results of IODP drilling;
• Organize and support IODP-related meetings/workshops in the UK Support attendance of UK scientists in international IODP meetings/workshops;
• Facilitate participation of UK scientists in the Science Advisory Structure of IODP and ECORD.
• Contribute towards training of research scientists.

IODP greatly expands the reach of the previous programs by using multiple drilling vessels, including riser, riserless, and mission-specific platforms, to achieve its scientific goals.

Following the success of the current phase (2003-2013), IODP will enter a new phase as the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) from Oct 2013 (2013-2023). The new Science Plan describes the initial scientific objectives of the new program, but also welcomes rapid initiatives in response new discoveries and globally significant marine events. The objectives have been organized into four themes:

• Climate and Ocean Change: Reading the past, informing the future
• Biosphere Frontiers: Deep Life, Biodiversity, and Environmental Forcing of Ecosystems
• Earth Connections: Deep Processes and their impact on Earth's Surface Environment
• Earth in Motion: Processes and Hazards on Human Time Scales

Latest News

• UK-IODP directed research programme currently under review. Announcement on structure of new programme expected by July, 2013.

• Check status of ongoing expeditions

• UKIODP has recently sponsored participants to attend, or co-organized the following meetings/workshops:

  1. 2013 Exploring the Cretaceous Greenhouse through Scientific Drilling
  2. Chikyu+10
  3. 2012 UK-IODP Student Conference
  4. 2012 UK-IODP General Meeting
  5. 2011 IODP/ICDP Workshop geological carbon capture and storage, Muscat, Oman
  6. The 2010 PALSEA workshop (PALeo-constraints on SEA-level rise - a PAGES/IMAGES working group) (workshop report)
  7. 2010 UKIODP Forcings and Feedbacks Workshop

• Message to scientific ocean drilling community (15/11/2011): Please find an important joint message from the co-chairs of the International Working Group +, who are responsible for designing the framework of the International Ocean Discovery Program for 2013 to 2023.

• UKIODP Renewal

  An independent Review Group was convened to provide the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) with an assessment of the benefits of ocean drilling to UK science. This review will examine all of the available evidence to assess the benefits of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Programme (IODP) and advise NERC of ocean drilling's potential to deliver strategic science in the future.  The outputs of this review will form part of the evidence that will be used to inform NERC Council's future funding decision on the membership subscription to the ocean drilling programme that will follow IODP in 2013, and also any UK support Research Programme funding.
  The review report was completed in Feb. 2011 and will now be assessed by NERC’s Science and Innovation Board (SISBY).

• UKIODP FEC Guidance for Expedition Participants
• Expedition Gallery - See highlights from current and past Expeditions.

Upcoming Deadlines

No current UK-specific deadlines.

Please see the ESSAC page website for up-to-date IODP news and opportunities: http://www.essac.ecord.org/ .

To receive UK-IODP announcements (~twice monthly), please email ukiodp@bgs.ac.uk.

Contributions to the UKIODP Newsletter Welcome - contact Science Coordinator.

To be added or removed from the UKIODP Emailing list please email your name, email and postal address to the UKIODP Science Coordinator.