Decker Memo

From: Cynthia Decker [SMTP:cdecker@brook.edu]

NOPP Program Managers,

I thought it would be important to contact all of you and clarify a few things about the National Oceanographic Partnership Program and the NOPP Program Office at CORE.

The NOPP Program Office acts as the coordinating entity for the entire program. As such, we handle certain administrative portions of the program, such as the review process, which are dictated and overseen by an interagency committee. We also act as a sort of clearinghouse for all of the scientific information generated by the program which we pass on to the various NOPP committees. We do NOT handle any financial aspects of the program except for maintaining statistics, such as who is funded where they are and various breakdowns of that information. In fact, as a non-governmental organization, we are precluded from any involvement in the direct financial management of the program. This means that I cannot answer any questions that you may have about the granting process. My understanding is that you should handle these grants just as you would any other 6.2 project in your program. The only business/legal point of contact at ONR for NOPP of whom I am aware is Brian Glance. If you have questions about those aspects of the grants, I would check with him. If he can't help you, he can probably tell you to whom you should speak. The Program Office is not the go-between for you and the ONR contracts office.

Because of our role as the coordinator of this program, I do need to know what is happening with each of these grants in terms of the science. I need to know basic stuff, such as when the PIs are meeting and what the fieldwork schedule is, and I need to know the results of the research. This does not mean that the Program Office will be directing the PIs or will interfere with the conduct of the research in any way.

The Program Office is responsible for reporting on the progress of these projects to the Interagency Working Group, The Ocean Research Advisory Panel, and the National Ocean Research Leadership Council. We may also get (and have gotten) Congressional inquiries about specific projects. For that reason, we will require a yearly progress report from the PIs (since these are two-year projects, this means one report due a year after the grant has been PRed). It is a lot easier on you and the PIs themselves if I am kept informed from the beginning. It would keep you from being stuck in the middle if I quickly have to pull together a response to an inquiry that comes before a progress report is available or that requires more information than the report provides. This also means that the PIs will know what it means to be part of NOPP and how they fit into such a large program. For those reasons, I would appreciate it if you could add me to your distribution list for these projects and, perhaps more importantly, make sure that I am on your PIs' distributions lists for meetings and documents.

In addition, you should feel free to use the Program Office as a resource. For example, we are putting together a workshop/ kickoff meeting for two of the west coast NOPP FY98 PIs who are doing related research. In conjunction with the host PI, we are handling all of the logistics for this, with input from ONR program officers. We can also give briefings on NOPP to your PIs and act as the coordinator for research in a variety of areas. We can make your job easier!

Thanks for your help with all of this. I hope this information is helpful to you. If there are any NOPP project kickoff meetings in the offing or any imminent visits from NOPP PIs to ONR, please let me know. I would like to attend these meetings or meet with those individuals. I know that meetings have already been held for Bellingham and Walstad and that we are setting up the workshop in September for Allen and Paduan. I really have no idea what's happening with the other projects. Please let me know.

Thanks,
Cynthia J. Decker

Ann - please see Cynthia Decker's note below. It is important that she be kept abreast of progress, etc. for your program. Therefore, please routinely cc: her with information you pass on to me, unless it is fiscal/legal stuff from which she is precluded by law. We are all feeling our way through this new arrangement. Thanks ... Jim