In February, 2004, Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) and BP entered into a long-term collaboration to work on scientific and technical problems of common interest. The partnership is part of a strategy at SIO to:

• Work closely with the private sector in areas where there are mutual interests.
• Broaden the scope of scientific research at SIO by expanding the base of funding from the private sector.
• Broaden the educational opportunities for SIO students interested in careers in ocean sciences.
• Expand the capabilities of SIO to address issues of relevance to society.

Investment from BP will also enable SIO to pioneer new technological development that is very difficult to fund through more traditional federal agencies. The innovative instrumentation and technologies developed/used in this program will be useful in new academic, ocean observing programs (well beyond this partnership) as well as contribute to the capabilities and efficiencies of BP operations.

Similar in concept to other BP partnerships with Cambridge University, Princeton University and the California Institute of Technology, the BP/SIO collaboration allows BP, one of the world’s largest energy companies, to collaborate with the world’s largest oceanographic institution - with a breadth and depth of expertise and resources that would otherwise be unavailable to either partner acting independently. For additional information regarding BP's Universities Research Program, click here.

The initial focus of the program was to develop and evaluate new technologies to image and characterize the seafloor and subseafloor. Using a wide variety of surveying techniques such as electromagnetics, fiber optics, acoustics, autonomous underwater vehicles, and ocean bottom seismographs, SIO and BP scientists are working to improve our understanding of the seabed and the processes that shape it (tides, storms, earthquakes, etc.). The particular emphasis has been to design, construct, and deploy new technologies aimed at better assessing marine geohazards. The research performed under this collaborative agreement will hopefully permit BP and SIO scientists to better understand the magnitude of the processes that shape the sea floor, and therefore not only improve the design of offshore facilities, but also evaluate the potential threat of marine geohazards to coastal communities as well as contribute to our overall understanding of the world’s oceans. The Principle Investigators for the BP/SIO Collaborative, and their topics of research from 2003 through 2007 include:

Marine Geohazards

Physical Oceanography

Climate Change