The Ocean Policy Committee — created by the June 2018 Executive Order establishing a new ocean policy — today issued a summary of the Nov. 14 White House Summit on Partnerships in Ocean Science and Technology.
The Summit, hosted by the Office of Science and Technology Policy and the Council on Environmental Quality, brought representatives from the federal government, philanthropy, the private sector, and academia to identify opportunities to build and maintain partnerships to lay the foundation for advancing marine science, promoting new technologies, and exploring the unknown ocean.
The summary notes that the Summit sought to develop and employ science and technology for the conservation, management, and balanced use of the nation’s oceans, and that science and technology advances can be harnessed to dramatically increase understanding and effective management of the ocean environment, including “the countless ecosystems that support the health and productivity of the ocean and the planet, the vast array of natural resources, such as critical minerals, energy, and marine-derived pharmaceutical compounds, which will collectively enhance our prosperity, security, and health.”
CEQ Chair Mary Neumayr and OSTP Director Kelvin Droegemeier discussed the importance of partnerships and collaboration in ocean science and technology, increasing understanding of the ocean, addressing marine debris, and the administration’s commitment to unleashing innovation, while Assistant to the President and Domestic Policy Council Director Joseph Grogan discussed the federal government’s environmental accomplishments, ocean agenda, and support for ocean science and technology partnerships.
National Science Foundation Director France Córdova moderated a panel discussion with representatives from the governmental, philanthropic, academic, private sector communities in which panelists addressed characteristics of successful partnerships, challenges with partnerships and how to address them, and recommendations on how the federal government can help build and maintain future partnerships.
Breakout sessions addressed ocean exploration, conserving living marine resources, protecting coastal health and safety, sustaining ocean observations, promoting food security, enabling ocean energy, characterizing ocean life, and leveraging big data, with key takeaways including that:
- (1) The U.S. is poised to lead a new era of bold innovation in ocean science and technology (including a focus on the importance of an ocean literate workforce, the economic opportunity of exploration and discovery, and communicating the value of ocean science and technology to the public and policymakers);
- (2) Partnerships across academia, philanthropy, the private sector, and government are essential to advancing ocean science and technology (including opportunities to explore strategies and considerations for building partnerships, new potential partnership models, and the importance of government policy and regulation that supports a partnership-focused approach to ocean science and technology; and
- (3) A collaborative and dynamic strategy for partnerships in ocean science and technology will coordinate, focus, and catalyze a national effort (including discussion of the value of a community-wide effort to address common goals and key lines of effort and enhancing and supporting existing partnership mechanisms like the National Oceanographic Partnership Program)
As to next steps, the summary notes the importance of opportunities for stakeholder input around the country and that follow-up sessions will be held throughout the U.S. at academic conferences and regional ocean science and technology centers, with the first session to be held on Thursday, Dec. 12 at the American Geophysical Union’s annual meeting in San Francisco, CA. Following regional sessions, a report will be developed to present input from around the country to help inform future collaboration actions to advance ocean science and technology.
In a Fox Business op-ed published a day before the summit, CEQ Chair Neumayr and OSTP Director Droegemeier previewed the event and wrote about the importance of ocean exploration and partnerships. In doing so, they noted that the U.S. is “poised to lead a second era of bold innovation that will…reshape and expand human knowledge of the ocean, a priority for President Trump and his administration,” concluding that “[t]hrough American innovation and advancements in science and technology, we will increase our economic competitiveness, strengthen our national security, protect our environment and preserve continued prosperity.”
