Background: In 2011, there was a call for proposals for regional research projects where the opportunity for alumni to participate in coordinated, collaborative research was announced. Since then, 5 regional research projects have been developed and undertaken based on topics of mutual interest involving at least 2 participating countries in each region. The research conducted by each of these regional groups has enabled knowledge-sharing, built capacity, forged collaborations among alumni and their wider communities, and developed common methods for conducting ocean observations. Some of the projects are in the final stages of preparing joint publications highlighting their results.
After 5 years of successful regional projects, the Nippon Foundation and POGO feel that it is time to change the format of the research conducted by NANO alumni. We are now making a call for project proposals that are global and can involve alumni from any country, regardless of their geographical location. Therefore the projects are to be more topic-focused rather than regionally-focussed.
Remit: The topic of the project should be relevant to the ocean observing community, including the NANO members and POGO community. The methods should be applicable by any alumni anywhere in the world (i.e. not require specialist equipment, be deployed/operated from shore of from a small boat, and be cost-effective). As with the previous projects, the topic should fit with NANO’s vision of “integrated observations of a changing ocean” and should contribute to understanding/solving societal issues that are important both locally and globally (e.g. climate change, fisheries, pollution, harmful algal blooms…). Examples could be:
• Developing a smartphone application which would enable NANO members from any country to make ocean observations and measurements and contribute these to an open access database;
• Use of existing technology or ideas from existing projects to collect data e.g. Secchi disk measurements; assessment of water colour in databases for the NANO community to share.
It is expected that the alumni will make use of the expertise already available among the NANO network and NANO friends. Partnerships may be sought with other organisations (e.g. ESA, Blue Planet, World Bank) to help facilitate/fund the projects. Please include ideas of possible partnerships and support you would require for your project.
Proposal Submission: Proposals should be submitted to the POGO Secretariat via pogoadmin{at}pml.ac.uk by 2 December 2016. Please use this template and include a budget (up to 50K USD). These will be reviewed by POGO and the Nippon Foundation and projects which are shortlisted will be invited to give a presentation of the proposed project at the POGO-18 meeting in Plymouth, United Kingdom (24-26th January 2017). It is anticipated that projects will start on 1st April 2017.
Download the proposal and budget templates below.
