2022 SOST Opportunities and Actions Roundtable
Summary: The challenges facing our oceans encapsulated in the 3 SOST priorities - climate change, resilient ocean S&T infrastructure, and a diverse and inclusive blue workforce - can potentially benefit from a large-scale interagency approach anchored within large cross-cutting projects. My proposal here calls for making interagency programs more of the norm rather than the exception to tackle these priorities in an integrated way within unifying projects. Many times, well-intentioned initiatives aiming to catalyze solutions tend to fall short because 1) one-off programs do not provide enough resources to persistently address the full scale of the challenges, and 2) each challenge harbors several interdependent sub-challenges that need considerable support and coordination. For example, if a significant portion of each agency’s budget is dedicated towards major interagency initiatives designed around our biggest challenges, then dedicated task forces with appropriate expertise can generate a Parent Project that significantly supports major sub-projects under one integrative framework. Here, teams from each sub-program work towards a North Star of one large parent project with regular coordination to align the development of each roadmap. Parent Projects can be selected based on their potential to safely scale socially, economically, and environmentally. In the attached 1-page summary, I present a brief case study for a parent project with promising, scalable attributes that sorely needs sub-project support, integration, and coordination: Marine Carbon Dioxide Removal (mCDR). Robust mCDR requires measuring changes in seawater chemistry while also ensuring their ethical and safe application for both ecosystems and human communities. While there are significant differences between the mCDR solutions that necessitate specific innovation, there is also significant overlap where certain frameworks or technologies (e.g., marine sensors, robotics, models, financing, permitting, social license, etc.) can be applied across their application, therefore streamlining development and reducing redundancy, time, and costs. Innovation will not only be streamlined but greatly accelerated while simultaneously addressing the 3 SOST priorities within scalable, integrated frameworks that can be adapted in modular ways. Finally, while the initial administrative challenge will be significant, these parent programs can also ultimately enable greater administrative efficiencies among everything from interagency activities to permitting for field pilots. Creating interagency parent programs anchored in the solutions with the greatest potential to solve our greatest challenges can be the framework that can solve for multiple priorities on the path to scale.
Sector: Academia, Industry, NGO
Organization: Project Vesta
POC: Nathan Walworth, nate@vesta.earth