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Administrative Structure



The Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) office at the National Science Foundation (NSF) was responsible for overseeing the Program and administering commingled funds from the international partners. The ODP Council, representing all of the partners, provided a forum for exchange of views among member nations, and reviewed financial, managerial and other matters regarding the overall support of ODP.

Overall scientific planning for ODP was provided by the Joint Oceanographic Institutions for Deep Earth Sampling (JOIDES), an international organization of advisory committees and panels. A report from the Conference on Scientific Ocean Drilling (COSOD), held in November 1981, was the scientific basis and justification for ODP. The first COSOD report identified twelve major scientific themes for which JOIDES developed specific drilling plans. The report of the second COSOD meeting (COSOD-II), held in July 1987, provided the framework for scientific ocean drilling through the 1990s. The ODP Long Range Plan (published in 1990) distilled the COSOD themes, JOIDES panel white papers, and other scientific and technical advice into a scientific and engineering strategy through the year 2002. A second ODP Long Range Plan, published in 1996, updated and extended the 1990 Long Range Plan.

In 1976 the U.S. member institutions of JOIDES formed an oceanographic organization called Joint Oceanographic Institutions (JOI) Inc., to facilitate scientific ocean drilling and advance oceanographic research in general, and to provide overall management as the prime contractor to NSF. JOI contracted with Texas A&M Research Foundation (TAMRF) to serve as Science Operator and with the Borehole Research Group (BRG) at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO) to serve as Wireline Services Operator and provide logging and other wireline services, as well as Data Bank Services. JOI, through a subcontract to the JOIDES office, provided support for JOIDES activities.

ODP Organizational Structure (PDF):

ODP org chart



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