Dear Colleague,
Following a workshop held in Sweden in November 2002, there is a growing
interest in the US science community to use Healy as part of a two-ship
cruise across the Arctic Ocean in 2005, teaming with the Swedish vessel
Oden. To allow for reasonable planning, the National Science
Foundation's Office of Polar Programs (OPP) wishes that the schedule of
Healy for 2005 is made with more lead time than is normal so we are
targeting the OPP August 8, 2003 proposal target date as the round of
proposals that would request Healy time in 2005, rather than the
February 15, 2004 deadline, as is usual under the current structure
developed by USCG, NSF and NOAA. Ship-time proposals received during
the February, 2003 target date have been accepted and will be reviewed,
but a funding decision will not be made until after the August 2003
review cycle is complete.
It is expected that the preliminary schedule for 2005 would be made by
approximately December 2003. Proposals received in February 2004 for
use of Healy in 2005 may be supportable, but they will have to fit with
the schedule determined for Healy in December 2003.
This announcement addresses only how OPP's standard proposal cycles
relate to the scheduling of Healy, and has been coordinated with USCG
and NOAA. OPP notes that there are no special constraints placed on
science proposed of these targets dates requesting ice breaker support.
That is, NSF is not predetermining that they wish Healy to accompany
Oden on the cross-basin cruise.
For further information please contact:
Simon Stephenson
+1 (703) 292-7435
sstephen [at] nsf.gov