Public-Private Partnerships in the Geosciences

1. Public-Private Partnerships in the Geosciences Industry and NSF-GEO

2. Promoting Academe and Industry Cooperation Opportunities GOALI:Grant Opportunities for Academic Liaison with Industry *Faculty, postdoctoral fellows, and students *Industrial scientists and engineers to bring industry's perspective and integrative skills to academe *Interdisciplinary university-industry teams to conduct research projects. SBIR: The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program

3. Promoting Academe and Industry Cooperation Opportunities • NSF IODP Funding Shortfall • Options to Address Shortfall • Current Potential Options for Off-NSF Contract JR Use • Ocean Drilling Consortium An industry-sponsored program that investigates three broad themes of industry interest, funded by a consortium of energy companies. This program would operate several months a year, have expeditions stocked by scientists, and would be based on proposals written by the scientific community. Data policies and publication policies are similar to IODP, with the exception of a 2 year data moratorium.

4. Scientific Themes Rifted Margins Structure and Evolution of Deep-Water Basins Reservoirs Origin, Architecture, and Properties Source Rocks Distribution and Origin of Organic-Carbon-Rich Strata Ocean Drilling Consortium: Scientific Frontiers in Deep Water Exploration Advancing knowledge of the Earth, strengthening ties with industry scientists, supporting our international program

5. Ocean Drilling Consortium Timeline Steer comm organized Proposalworkshop Proposal submitted Feedback / revision Yes / No 2008 2009 June Sept May Phase I - NAtl, GOM 2010 2011 June Jan Phase II - NAtl, SAtl 2012 2013 June Jan

6. Promoting Academe and Industry CooperationOpportunities Industry-NSF Funding Initiatives Can we cooperatively fund research? Government laws do not allow direct contributions to NSF’s budget. Are there other scenarios that will work? NSF is working with a major society developing a workable arrangement. Participation of industry by in-kind or technological support of NSF funded research Drilling Seismic surveys of drill sites Logging support Reflection seismic support Laboratory usage Field support Participation in industry sponsored research Joint support of research workshops and NRC-like studies Joint sponsorship of technical sessions

7. Promoting Academe and Industry Cooperative Opportunities • Support and Participation in NSF STCs: • NCED:National Center for Earth- surface Dynamics: (Anadarko, ChevronTexaco, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, Japan Oil • SAHRA:Sustainability of semi-Arid Hydrology and Riparian Areas • CMOP:Center for Coastal Margin Observation and Prediction

8. 0.9 m A Uninterpreted Stratigraphy 0.45 m A Industry Ties: Development and Testing of Subsurface Architecture Models V.E = 1.4 sb • Industry partners help support subsurface architecture research through SAFL industry consortium • Stratigraphic models (both experimental and numerical) developed by NCED staff provide quantitative tests of qualitative models developed and frequently used within industry. sb B B sb sb Experimental Stratigraphy created during experiment in the XES Basin. This experiment was designed to test the Sequence Stratigraphic Model

9. Lake P Industry Ties: Stratigraphy in Support of Sustainable Delta Restoration Sedimentary deposits beneath the present delta surface provide a long record of how the delta maintained itself under natural conditions. NCED’s goal is to learn how the natural self-maintaining Delta worked in the past and to harness those processes to help restore the Delta today. WesternGeco Multiclient 3D Surveys Abundance of industry seismic data from the Delta. 3D Regional Surveys & Site Surveys for Hazards Assessment recently acquired by NCED will aid construction of Delta Models

10. Natural processes in the Mississippi Delta can be harnessed to rebuild resilient, self-maintaining delta lobes.   This scenario is absolutely within reach - despite subsidence and rising sea level. The Wax Lake Delta Lobe shown in the small box on the far left of the above illustration has developed since Mississippi river water and sediments were naturally and permanently diverted into the Atchafalaya River drainage during the 1973 flood.  The two larger boxes on the right of the above illustration depict two hypothetical delta lobes created by deliberate anthropogenic Mississippi river diversions directly south of New Orleans.  These lobes could naturally rebuild both inundated wetlands and delta plain, and provide protection to New Orleans from hurricane surges.  This project will require the coordination of agencies of federal, state and local governments, and industry under the guidance of the engineers and scientists at NSF's National Center for Earth-surface Dynamics.     

11. Industry Ties: Integrated Sediment Budget and Routing Model for Restoration of the Le Sueur River Lake Superior Minnesota River Basin Project Goals: Restoration in a watershed context Quantifying sediment sources Tracking sediment pathways Determining optimal locations for BMPs Mississippi River Le Sueur Watershed Stream restoration industry needs improved tools to source and track sediments and constrain natural background erosion rates. External Collaborators Minnesota Pollution Control Agency US Geological Survey Barr Engineering Co.

12. Perched on the banks of the Mississippi River’s St. Anthony Falls, the Outdoor StreamLab Has been uniquely designed to study interactions among a channel, its floodplain, and vegetation. The facility can produce a large range of flow rates, including overbank floods. Dams and bridge Piers placed within the Outdoor StreamLab allow study of dynamic human-river interactions.

13. Promoting Academe and Industry Cooperative Opportunities in Education Low-hanging fruit: • Internships/fellowships for undergrads/grad students • Marketing geoscience career opportunities • Sponsoring teacher professional development • Sustaining successful NSF-initiated programs More ambitious: • Advocating for greater inclusion of geoscience content in the high school curriculum • Including or expanding geoscience content in broader STEM education reform activities (e.g., America COMPETES Act; NSTA’s Building a Presence)

14. New Jersey Geoscience Scholars (Alex Gates, Rutgers) • Reform of Newark Public Schools Earth Science curriculum and a suite of extracurricular activities to encourage students to pursue college degrees in geoscience • Collaborators: • Rutgers • Newark Museum • Meadowlands Environmental Research Institute • Langan Engineering • Environmental Services Corporation • URS Corporation • Contributors: • ExxonMobil Foundation $25,000

15. Paleoclimate & Flooding History in the So. San Joaquin Valley, CA (Dirk Baron, CSUB) • Earth Science summer research program for high school teachers & students and undergraduate students that is focused on locally-relevant paleoclimate and flooding issues. • Collaborators: • Cal State Univ Bakersfield • Bakersfield City School District • Kern County • Contributors: • Chevron donated $1 million to sustain and expand program

16. Africa Array (Andy Nyblade, PSU) • AfricaArray is an initiative to promote coupled geophysics training and research programs for undergrad & graduate students & post-docs, to build and maintain a scientific workforce for Africa’s natural resource sector. • Collaborators (12 partners): • Penn State Univ • Univ Witwatersrand • Council for Geoscience (SA) • IRIS • North Carolina A&T Univ • Contributors: • Many oil & mining companies interested in providing support

17. Promoting Academe and Industry CooperationWhat are the Needs? - NSF lacks a policy statement or position on public/private sector interaction. • There is no organized discourse and cooperation. • Need to shed the subtle mindset that if industry is involved, NSF should not be, and vice versa. • Needs to be a more balanced focus within solid Earth geosciences at NSF. • Historically, EAR resources and activities have focused on deep Earth research (mantle and core). • More recent, environmental concerns have strengthened a focus on surface Earth research. • Very little focus on the Earth’s sedimentary crust where one might expect major private-public sector interaction.

18. Promoting Academe and Industry CooperationWhat are the Difficulties? • Industry and government’s constant refocus and reorganization • Industry propriety nature and no organized way of releasing information once it becomes non-proprietary.

19. What Role can Societies Play • Act as the link between the three poles-industry, academe, and government agencies. • Promote joint sponsorship of workshops, major conferences, NRC studies, workforce issues: • Numeric modeling of carbonate platforms • Deep time paleoclimate NRC study • Educational issues • Joint sponsorship of technical sessions at AAPG, SEPM, GSA, AGU, etc.

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