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BP-Scripps Agreement
01 Feb 2005
BP has concluded a $3m partnership agreement with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, for a three-year research programme. The initial focus of the programme, say the two organisations, will be to develop and evaluate new technologies for imaging and characterising seafloors and sub-seafloors.
Using a wide variety of surveying techniques such as electromagnetics, fibre optics, acoustics, autonomous underwater vehicles and ocean bottom seismographs, Scripps and BP scientists aim to improve general understanding of seabeds and the processes that shape them.
This, they add, should lead to improved design of offshore facilities while also assisting with development of new academic ocean observation projects. Also, investment from BP will enable Scripps to pioneer new technical advances which would otherwise be very difficult to fund through more traditional US federal agencies.
The agreement is similar in concept to other BP partnerships with Cambridge University, Princeton University and the California Institute of Technology.
Founded in 1903, the Scripps Institution is one of the world’s leading science research and graduate training centres with a staff of around 1,300 specialists and an annual expenditure of approximately $140m. It also maintains a fleet of four oceanographic research ships in addition to a research platform for worldwide exploration and is currently engaged in an extensive number of studies in 65 countries.
