The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative: a New Research Paradigm

Abstract

The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) was established to guide and administer the $500 million research fund committed by BP to understand the fate and effects of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Competitive research awards are made by an independent research board led peer-review process following the standards established by the National Academy of Sciences and the National Science Foundation. The Board comprises twenty distinguished researchers with 10 members from around the world appointed by BP and 10 members from research universities in the Gulf region appointed by the Gulf of Mexico Alliance. The two main goals of GoMRI are: 1) to study the Deepwater Horizon incident and its associated impacts (and similar incidents), on the environment and public health, and 2) to develop improvements for spill mitigation, oil detection and new remediation technologies. Through public input, GoMRI identified five research themes: 1) physical distribution of contaminants, 2) chemical evolution and biological degradation of contaminants, 3) environmental effects and ecosystem recovery, 4) technological developments and 5) public health impacts. The largest pool of funds made available by the GoMRI to date was through RFP-I, released in April 2011, for consortia composed of at least four institutions to conduct interdisciplinary work on one or more of the research themes over a three-year period. GoMRI awarded $110 million to eight consortia for this three-year period. These awardees included experts from across the country, though most principal investigators were from Gulf States. Funds ($18.5 million) from a second RFP were awarded to nineteen, smaller, research teams at eighteen different institutions; contracted amounts range from $100,000 to $1 million per year for up to three years. The next major research competition will take place in the spring of 2014; awards will be announced in the fall of 2014.GoMRI established extensive data management and outreach programs. It established policies for timely submissions of data to existing national databases so data collected or generated will be available to all interested. Outreach efforts include consortia specific programs, an active central web portal for search of, access to and exchange of information and a centralized outreach program.The construct of GoMRI with emphasis on collaboration and sharing of information through publication of research findings and the timely availability of scientific data offers a new paradigm for the conduct of research.