Initial Publication Date: November 30, 2021

Breakout Discussion Findings

The questions we asked over the two Breakout sessions were:

  1. How does Scientific Ocean Drilling currently convey information about Scientific Ocean Drilling topics to policymakers and into policy and how can those efforts be strengthened?
  2. What are our key messages to policymakers and what supporting info do we provide with each?
  3. How can scientists and policymakers work together to help lower some of the barriers to cross pollination across science agencies?

The following notes summarize the many and varied discussions that were had during the breakout sessions. Many have formed the basis for our workshop key challenges and key recommendations.

Summary of discussion points (in no particular order or priority):

  1. Decide what you want to communicate.
    • What is the hook? Needs to be societally-relevant
    • What is the ask? Is there an ask? 
    • Use social media
    • Tie global issues to local / regional area
  2. Decide how you are going to communicate
    • What tools reach your audience 
    • Look for analogous efforts that have bene successful and learn from them
    • Use appropriate language – not scientific jargon
  3. Strengthen collaborations with a network that shares goals
  4. Establish connections to / with ongoing processes (e.g., Link between UN Ocean Decade – IODP Science Framework – societal challenges) and pre-existing organisations (e.g., GSA, AAAS). Work with existing "Connective Tissue" to show the links between projects and so strengthen each one.
  5. Emphasize the educational component of scientific ocean drilling
  6. Emphasize leadership: there is a long history of scientific ocean drilling; leadership has a deep memory
  7. Use international competitiveness and national security?
  8. If there is a significant large ask, consider breaking it into bite-sized pieces. Must be actionable. 
  9. Use social media as a means of communication, calling on policymakers for their support and acknowledging their support when they do things we appreciate
  10. Make the relevance of any ask clear to representatives 
    • Have a punchy set of highlights ready for anyone to use
  11. It seems that right now there is no coordinated effort for communication, yet there is a broad base of scientists working on / in scientific ocean drilling who are reaching out to their representatives. We need to create consistency in the messages, and links between those active in this arena.
  12. Need a simple, clear logo and brand recognition for scientific ocean drilling
  13. Know your policymaker
    • What have they supported before
    • What bills are they involved in
    • What committees or caucuses are they involved in
  14. Find / develop an ally / champion, to get a foot in the door
    • Could be a congressperson, or a staffer, or a personality (e.g., Space has Branson, Bezos and Musk. Could we get Victor Vescovo for example [Five Deeps})
  15. Education and outreach events: promote them to policymakers
  16. Include how your ask will fit into the budget -- don't make representatives try to figure that out for you
  17. Write a White Paper for the IODP community that concisely describes the do's and don'ts in approaching policy makers and their offices / staffers. This will state the key messages, "asks" for district and national levels, and tips and techniques for reaching people. 
    • Develop a one pager for the community with tips and techniques on the best ways to approach representatives at both Federal and local levels. 
    • Develop a series of templates that scientists can use to approach journalists (Local and National press)
  18. Need a 1-2 pager that we, in the scientific drilling community, share in order to maintain consistency in messaging: 
    • Defined talking points 
    • Clear messaging 
    • Clear asks 
    • Suitably structured – ASK first in a box at the top, Background next, Recommendations last 
    • Correct use of language for that audience
  19. Messaging – need for consistent, clear and jargon free messaging that all IODP community members use when approaching anyone. 
    • Develop a series of messaging / topic buckets for different levels of representation, political viewpoints (need to keep the same message but adjust language), demographics, geographic location etc 
    • Need to ensure everyone uses these agreed messages 
    • Need to ensure the messages are flexible enough to be adjusted for the specific audience
  20. Articulate the connections for local constituent needs
  21. Reverse engineering: what are the future needs that we can anticipate and link to our asks?
  22. Have a Big Goal: What is our Moonshot, to inspire and engage people with, and can we work with other agencies on developing one? 

 

Encouraging Cross-Agency Collaborations:

  • Communicate sources of funding from other agencies to the IODP community
  • Create "Bigger Science" by approaching cross-cutting themes in a broader interdisciplinary manner
  • Arrange a Task Force or Board that is composed of scientists from different agencies (e.g., NASA, NSF, USGS, DOE, DOI, COL .....) – NAS was suggested as a "host" but that would need a funder
  • Start the collaboration much earlier in the proposal development phase
  • Stress the science that can be done through inter-agency collaborations against the "restricted" science if only one agency is involved – more bang for your buck.
  • Learn each other's language and find common goals or aims (e.g., DEI, hazard research, energy, origin of life, coastal management etc...)
  • Push for policy directives / funding that encourages or even demands inter-agency collaboration – develop MoU's
  • Also work from grassroots up and encourage IODP scientists to go and talk to people in other agencies to come up with joint proposals
  • Leverage the Research and Technology Subcommittee of the House to help build bridges

 

Possible Messages to Convey:

  • Discovery, inspiration and exploration of new frontiers on our planet – a planet that is the home for everyone and which we need to fully understand
  • US scientific, international, leadership – risk of losing our leadership role
  • Workforce development in STEM – educational materials, career development
  • Program is very well run (from a funding agency point of view) – value for money
  • Technology developments that translate to other areas such as NASA and industry (e.g. SHERLOC on Mars Rover and Deep-sea mineral exploration)
  • We are a program that solves (or maybe investigates) real-world societal problems
  • Technological developments and new engineering / observational methods
  • Global issues and local issues all encompassed in our work – from climate change to localized sea-level rise, freshwater sources and marine incursions, historical changes in ocean acidity and temperature as clues to future..........
  • Quantity of samples and data that we have safely archived for use by scientists globally – incredible archive of Earth's history
  • Ocean research is fundamental to climate science
  • Our research in Geohazards and the potential impacts of many different communities
  • Three avenues of messaging:
    • Infrastructure (ship) and ongoing support for that infrastructure at Federal level
    • Research implications at Federal and Local levels
    • Workforce implications