OPERATIONAL PLANNING FOR DRILLING PROPOSALS

SODCO will work with Principal Investigators (PIs) to develop technically feasible operational plans suited to their scientific goals as part of the process of preparing drilling proposals that will be submitted to the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF).

WEBINAR: SODCO Support for Operational Planning in Drilling Proposals

To help science teams prepare for developing an NSF drilling proposal, SODCO will host a webinar to walk proponents through the operational planning process. We will introduce the new SODCO planning form and spreadsheet, outline how the operations plan (a requirement for NSF proposals) will be constructed, and answer questions from the science community.

Date: Friday, February 20, 2026

Time: 2pm Eastern Standard Time/11am Pacific Standard Time

Please register in advance to attend the webinar. The webinar will be recorded and posted on this page following the live event.

Register

OVERVIEW

SODCO supports PIs in preparing drilling proposals that will be submitted to NSF. A vital part of a drilling proposal is a technically feasible plan for at sea operations that will acquire the materials and measurements necessary to answer key scientific questions. Our team of operations engineers and scientists will work closely with proponents to provide advice and develop at sea operations plans tailored for the scientific requirements of the proposal. Operations plans may include, but are not limited to, drilling with or without coring, downhole logging, the use of specialized tools, transiting times, contingencies for poor weather conditions, and total expedition time. Upon successful funding of a proposal, SODCO and the PIs will prepare the final operations plan, taking into account any changes in priorities and advice from proposal reviewers.

OPERATIONAL SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS

PIs will work with SODCO to prepare an operations plan prior to the submission of a proposal. NSF will require that submitted ocean drilling proposals include a supplementary document on operations prepared by the PIs and SODCO.

This document will include:

  1. The Scientific Ocean Drilling Operational Requirements form [Word download].
  2. The Site Operations Sheet [Excel download].
  3. A draft operations plan completed by SODCO and the PIs.
  4. A cover letter from SODCO.

PROCESS

PIs may contact SODCO at any time for assistance, but we need at least one month to work with PIs prior to the submission of their proposal. When PIs are ready to have an operations plan created, they should fill out the Scientific Ocean Drilling Operational Requirements form [Word download] and the Site Operations Sheet [Excel download] to the best of their abilities.

The operations team at SODCO will use the information provided by the PIs to construct a draft drilling, coring, and measurement operations plan that can accomplish the scientific goals of the proposal. We expect this process to be iterative and may require video calls with the PI group.

Once the PIs are satisfied with the draft operations plan provided by SODCO, they should update their Scientific Ocean Drilling Operational Requirements form and Site Operations Sheet to reflect the draft operations plan. PIs must submit the finalized documents to SODCO so that we can produce a proposal-specific cover letter. SODCO will create a final document with the items enumerated above that the PI must submit as a supplementary document to accompany their NSF drilling proposal

When a drilling proposal is funded by NSF, the proposal operations plan will be revisited by SODCO and the PIs and a final detailed operations plan created. The proposal operations plan is only a draft and can be modified so long as it does not impact the achievement of the funded science goals.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Yes. The SODCO operations team needs the information in these forms to understand the requirements of the science goals and to be able to create a realistic operational plan and time estimate. If there are details in the forms you are not sure of or if it is not clear what information is being asked for, please contact us and we will work through these issues with you.

It depends. Some expeditions may require more complex operations than others and take a little longer to develop. SODCO will work iteratively with proponents/proponent teams to reach a satisfactory and technically achievable proposal operations plan.

At least one month. The SODCO team wants to provide PIs with the best advice possible and an operations plan that is suitable to accomplish all of the scientific goals outlined in the NSF proposal. SODCO will need to review your forms, develop an operations plan, and prepare a proposal-specific cover letter that will be part of your submission to NSF.

CONTACT

Please contact [email protected] for operational assistance or questions.