In our team’s inaugural contract year, the NOPP Office organized events facilitating partnership across the ocean science community. Their first was the Ocean Life Forum, a pioneering partnership forum held on August 9-10, 2023, in scenic Edgewater, MD. This collaborative endeavor saw the NOPP Office joining forces with esteemed partners, namely the NOAA Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) and the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History.
Drawing together nearly 60 experts from federal government, tribal, academic, and nonprofit organizations, the forum served as a nexus for identifying priority needs and seizing opportunities to enhance the coordination and expansion of marine biodiversity information. They successfully harnessed this wealth of knowledge to guide informed decision-making in the areas of management, development, conservation, and our collective response to climate change in the 2023 Ocean Life Forum Report .
The NOPP Office continued its momentum by hosting a second mini-forum, transformed into a dynamic town hall event, at the OCEANS ‘23 conference in Biloxi, MS, on September 15, 2023. Collaborating with influential partners such as NOAA Ocean Exploration and the National Ocean Mapping, Exploration, and Characterization (NOMEC) Council, this mini-forum brought together panelists from both government agencies and the private sector. Their mission: to actively engage the marine technology community in enlightening discussions revolving around the NOMEC Strategy and the imperative of forging partnerships that transcend sectors. The result was a vibrant exchange of ideas that resonated within the marine technology landscape, further solidifying the NOPP Office’s commitment to fostering collaboration and driving innovation in the pursuit of a sustainable and resilient future.
The NOPP Office is not only celebrating milestones, but also eagerly anticipating the possibilities that lie ahead. Look out for them at the Ocean Sciences Meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana from February 18th through the 23rd!
