Featured Projects

Background

Because of the high expense of conducting research, it is beneficial to partner with other organizations with overlapping missions. The North Pacific Research Board (NPRB) provides funding for research related to fishery management issues and important ecosystem information in Alaskan waters.

Approach

OSRI and NPRB established a funding agreement in 2005 that outlined an approach to selecting and jointly funding research projects. Over the years that agreement has been modified to improve the number and quality of projects being considered. OSRI has committed $100,000 per year to projects that both organizations consider worthy of funding. Some proposals submitted to NPRB are selected by OSRI for consideration. Those proposals are reviewed by the OSRI Scientific and Technical Committee and they provide a recommendation on whether OSRI should consider funding the proposed work. If projects that OSRI find worthy are funded by NPRB, then we negotiate OSRI’s contribution. The projects are administered by NPRB.

Results

Several projects have been jointly funded by NPRB and OSRI. A few of the projects that have been supported include the survey of nearshore fish in Prince William Sound, improving the bathymetric maps in the Chukchi Sea, examining the effects of oil on mussels, and Polar bear distributions. The partnership has allowed both organizations to support more projects that address their missions.