This 3-year award to Oregon State University (OSU) provides support for technical services during NSF-funded programs on R/V Wecoma, a 185' general purpose research vessel operated as part of the University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System research fleet. OSU will provide one shipboard technician on each cruise of R/V Wecoma to support seagoing research projects and to maintain, calibrate and provide for qualified users items from their pool of shared-use research instrumentation. As specialized services, OSU will maintain and operate the NORCOR facility to provide sediment coring services when required in support of NSF-funded projects. The NORCOR coring systems are portable, and they will be operated from the vessel that is most efficient to undertake the scheduled project, normally a UNOLS vessel, or USCGC Healy for programs requiring ice-breaking capability. OSU will also provide as specialized services an undulating, towed vehicle for acquiring oceanographic data. This instrument, also, may be operated from UNOLS vessels of opportunity, and thus may be scheduled to make efficient use of the UNOLS fleet. OSU technical personnel will also continue to collaborate in the SWAP (Shipboard Wireless Applications Protocols) program, to enhance ship-ship and ship-shore communications via wireless communications technologies. The technical support and instrument maintenance provided via this award enables shared-use operation of this oceanographic facility by qualified researchers from throughout the US, and it enables efficient use of the vessel and other specialized instrumentation for federally-funded oceanographic research. ***
