In February 1996, a Tripartite Agreement was signed between NERC (Natural Environment Research Council, UK), IFREMER (Institut Français de Recherche pour l’Exploitation de la Mer, France) and BMBF (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, Germany) for the mutual cooperation of marine scientific interests and activities on a ‘no-money-flow’ basis (i.e. barter).
The main objectives of the Tripartite Agreement are to facilitate:
- Joint cruises
- Exchange of ship-time
- Exchange of marine equipment
In November 2002, the NIOZ (Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Netherlands) became a member, followed in November 2006 by both the CSIC (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Spain), and the IMR (Institute of Marine Research, Norway). Within the agreement, 90% of the European Global Class and more than 50% of the Ocean Class academic research ships are now represented.
From each organisation’s perspective, this arrangement has two significant advantages. Firstly, it allows scientists access to a wider range of facilities and equipment than would otherwise be possible. This includes 21 research ships and other facilities such as manned submersibles, remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), towed arrays and shipboard surveying systems. Such facilities are required to carry out “cutting edge” research, but are frequently so expensive that it makes little sense for each country to purchase their own facilities.
Secondly, the agreement can significantly reduce wasted time, and therefore wasted cost, spent on long passage legs between areas of scientific interest, and allow marine scientists access to a wider range of geographical areas in a given year.
Under the aegis of this agreement, the partners in 1996 established a permanent Working Group, now named the Ocean Facilities Exchange Group (OFEG). OFEG comprises the managers and planners of the respective fleet of scientific research ships and major marine facilities. To meet the agreement’s general objectives, OFEG has the goals:
- To barter ship-time and major marine equipment whenever they are not available on a national basis at a certain period of time or in a geographic region;
- To exchange expertise of technological knowledge by using the equipment and technicians of partners;
- To provide a better overview of ‘large’ and ‘expensive’ equipment, their technical specifications, and their availability;
- To promote coordination of large marine investments.
Although the underlying principle is that no money changes hands, the arrangement does not provide “free” ship time. For every cruise on another organisation’s ship, the beneficiary organisation must mount a full cruise on one of its own ships in return, and to an equivalent ‘value’. The operating costs still fall to the shipowners, and each organisation has an appropriate scheme of banking to support the process. An equivalence points system has been agreed for the value of each of the ships, to ensure like-for-like ‘value’. Points are allocated per ship or equipment day used.
Access to these facilities is now automatically incorporated into the planning cycle. For more information on how the agreement works or how to arrange a specific barter, interested marine scientists should contact the representatives in their own country, who will act on behalf of the marine community to negotiate barters as required.
A copy of the Tripartite Agreement can be found here.
Click here to see the IMR ans CSIC Agreement