The Decision Makers Point of View(K. Lochte)

The main aims are to

• maintain a modern European research fleet

• use it most effectively • facilitate state of the art technological

development and capacity building

Be aware of..

• The European fleet is a consortium of different national fleets with national funding and different organisational structures.

• There are national priorities, prides and demands.

-> We can not change this and have to adapt to it.

->However, all nations recognise the high costs in maintaining a modern research fleet and seek to reduce the financial burden.

The German Research Vessels (global, oceanic and regional)

Modernisation 30 years service

Out of service

replacement

Areas of Operation of German Research Vessels

RVs Polarstern, Meteor, Sonne, Merian

Cruises in different regions

In total 9543 days (2000-2005)

Pacific

North SeaBaltic Sea

North Atlantic

Atlantic(without NAtlantic)

MediterraneanBlack SeaRed Sea

Arctic

Antarctic

Indic

Procedure for Application and Logistic Support for German Research Vessels

Large Sea-Going Infrastructure

->need to be exchangeable between ships

->need adequate technical support (hardware and manpower)

->need to be considered in the evaluation and in the logistic planning

To maintain a modern European Research Fleet ..

• We need a high level gremium that advises on the development of the European Fleet, including large sea going equipment

-> this provides international support for nationally funded infrastructure and input to ESFRI

• For operations in remote areas we need to consider „shared ships“ (bi- or multinational operation)

-> develop guidelines and model contracts

To use it most effectively …• harmonise the application and evaluation

procedures (structure and timing). They must be comparable and accepted by the partner institutions (OFEG, ERVO).

-> development of common standards and forms for applications and of evaluation criteria.

• improve and extend the logistic planning including the large sea-going equipment.

-> data base and logistics software

• open the ships for use by partners and regulate the financial aspects (e.g. use of large sea-going equipment).

-> bartering and/or charter, develop European agreements further.

Days exchanged between OFEG members

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

France Germany The Netherlands* Spain** UK

Day

s ex

chan

ged

(bet

wee

n 19

94 &

200

4) France

Germany

The Netherlands*

Spain**

UK

* exchanges since 1998 ** exchanges since 2003

To devlop technology and build capacity …

• Equip (selected) ships with uniform technical capacities to handle large sea going equipment

• Harmonise the technical support on board

• Training of technical personnel and students (continuation of „floating university“)

• Develop new sensors and payloads (exchangeabel between ships and equipment)

Germany

• Has presently one of the largest European research fleets and we aim to maintain it.

• Presently all ship time is extremely overbooked. There is no capacity to open our ships for new users, we can only improve the use of the ships (less transit) and offer places on the ships if a cruise is not fully booked.

• We are interested in developing mechanisms for „shared ships“ in remote areas or improve the exchange.

• We would welcome a commonly agreed evaluation proceedure and harmonisation of time schedules.