Sea Education Association (SEA) requests National Science Foundation funding to support annual manufacturer calibration of existing oceanographic instrumentation on its two sailing research vessels, the SSV Corwith Cramer and SSV Robert C. Seamans. These vessels operate in the Atlantic and Pacific, respectively, providing academically rigorous training for students in the marine sciences. NSF funding support for instrument calibration is crucial to allow high-quality oceanographic datasets to be collected and analyzed by undergraduates enrolled in our SEA Semester academic programs and by collaborating scientists from colleges and research institutions throughout the country. All data generated will be freely shared with the entire oceanographic community via submission to the appropriate long-term data archives through the Rolling Deck to Repository (R2R) program.
Broader Impacts The principal impact of the present proposal is under Merit Review Criterion 2 of the Proposal Guidelines (NSF 13-589). It provides infrastructure support for scientists to use the vessel and its shared-use instrumentation in support of their NSF-funded oceanographic research projects (which individually undergo separate review by the relevant research program of NSF). The acquisition, maintenance and operation of shared-use instrumentation allows NSF-funded researchers from any US university or lab access to working, calibrated instruments for their research, reducing the cost of that research, and expanding the base of potential researchers.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
