NOAA Undersea Research Program

New NOAA Cooperative Institute Replaces Four NOAA Undersea Research Program Centers

NOAA announced the award of a new cooperative institute to focus on ocean exploration, research, and technology development for the U.S. East Coast. The institute is a consortium to be led by and headquartered at the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute at Florida Atlantic University in Fort Pierce, Fla. The University of North Carolina Wilmington will be the co-managing partner and limited partners are SRI International, St. Petersburg, Fla., and the University of Miami.

The new institute will conduct research under three main themes: development of advanced underwater technologies, exploration and research of frontier regions of the eastern continental shelf and beyond, and improved understanding of deep and shallow coral ecosystems. NOAA’s Office of Ocean Exploration and Research will be the institute’s primary NOAA partner, which will replace four East Coast centers of NOAA’s Undersea Research Program.