Statement on Report’s Recommendation for NSF Ocean Observatories Initiative
Statement
Last update June 3, 2026
Forecasting the Ocean: The 2025-2035 Decade of Ocean Science, a National Academies report issued last year, found that the National Science Foundation’s Ocean Observatories Initiative has seen many successes and, as it stands, would partially support urgent ocean research questions identified by the committee that wrote the report. Although the committee recommended that NSF conduct a revisioning and restructuring exercise to consider how the next iteration of the initiative could meet specific future needs of ocean scientists, it said that exercise should be separate and independent from the regular review and renewal of the initiative. The committee recommended that NSF continue funding for core infrastructure that supports three research priorities, including the Ocean Observatories Initiative.
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