University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science: Research Vessel FG. Walton Smith SSSE

A request is made to fund new instrumentation for the R/V Walton Smith, a 96,’ general purpose regional vessel operated and owned by the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (RSMAS) as part of the US Academic Fleet. These vessels are scheduled by the University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS).

R/V Walton Smith conducts a substantial portion of her operations in the near shore waters of South Florida and the Gulf of Mexico, providing scientific information relevant to major environmental initiatives. R/V Walton Smith completed 35 days in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. In 2021, the vessel is scheduled to sail 105 days with 33% (35 days) of the schedule for NSF.

With this proposal, Miami provides technical descriptions and rationale for the acquisition of the following Oceanographic Instrumentation: Applanix POS MV OceanMaster Broader Impacts

The principal impact of the present proposal is under Merit Review Criterion 2 of the Proposal Guidelines (NSF 19-602). It provides infrastructure support for scientists to use the vessel and its shared-use instrumentation in support of their NSF-funded oceanographic research projects (which individually undergo separate review by the relevant research program of NSF).

The acquisition, maintenance and operation of shared-use instrumentation allows NSF-funded researchers from any US university or lab access to working, calibrated instruments for their research, reducing the cost of that research, and expanding the base of potential researchers.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.