The Management Team would welcome input from the Technical Councils on the MBARI initiatives.  Specifically, comments on the following would be welcome:  

1)  What is the science/technology/engineering mix in the initiative proposals?
Hard to tell in some cases because the problems haven't been well defined and scoped.
Too early to talk about engineering and technology.

Trying to make decisions now about technology and engineering may restrict choices for science directions and approaches.



2)  Do any of the initiatives have connections or create ramifications for development projects currently in the proposal process?

3)  Finally, do you have any advice as to how to make the initiative process more successful?


All planning efforts, 7.5 mo scoping projects
some bring together existing efforts, others start new tracks

Consistency has been affected because everyone was given the idea that there wouldn't be any proposals this year. Everyone had to scramble when proposals were suddenly solicited, and this also had the affect of making people draw on existing work as the basis of proposals, rather than taking time to think big. What we have is a result of the way we've done things so far, which has been a moving target and on short notice.

Technology outlook (3-5 yrs) driven by science goals?

All have only begun looking at existing assets.

we could act as a resource for initiatives teams to answer questions
technlogy/engineering should a small component at first -- we need to develop science questions first. It would be good for us to be there when the questions are being developed -- opportunities: initiative workshops, meetings. In many cases the TCs don't have the expertise -- it would be useful for us to work with the various initiatives teams in their projects.

It is possible that initiatives could have no technical content.

TCs could raise awareness of on-going projects to the initiatives teams, which may be unaware of some of what MBARI is doing. This might be a way to engage in initiatives

We should fuel creative process at this point rather than constrain it.

Technology turns into a driver quickly.

Could be initiatives (geology) that haven't been proposed because of scramble. Process open next year? Can we help them to generate initiatives

No big red flags on any initiatives proposals, all have potential for tech development, none have tech elements that are crazy.
some proposal play to the questions asked, other don't.