University of Hawaii is chosen for NOAA research institute

The University of Hawaii will receive up to $210 million over five years to lead the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s new Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research, it was announced Tuesday.

UH won the right to host the research institution following an open, competitive evaluation.

CIMAR, as it will be known, will essentially replace UH’s NOAA-funded Joint Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research, known as JIMAR, which has been operating at the university since 1977 and since 1988 as part of the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology.

But this time there is more than double the available money from NOAA, and it comes with the potential for renewal for another five years based on successful performance.

According to NOAA, CIMAR’s mission will be to conduct research, understand and predict environmental changes in the Indo-Pacific region in order to better conserve and manage coastal and marine resources in the Hawaiian Islands and U.S.-affiliated Pacific islands.

“Most of that research is oriented to understanding the environment we live in,” said Doug Luther, director of JIMAR. “To me it’s almost all for the benefit of the local people, us and those of us living on these islands, so we can better know the environment, we can understand it and we can prepare for changes that are coming and protect the environment.”

Research will be conducted along eight themes: ecological forecasting, ecosystem monitoring, ecosystem-based management, protection and restoration of resources, oceano­graphic monitoring and forecasting, climate science and impacts, air-sea interactions, and tsunami and other long-period ocean waves.

Luther, who will lead CIMAR in the new fiscal year, said a number of new research areas are planned, including an investigation into autonomous vehicles used for research. Those include remotely controlled sail drones that collect data while operating on the surface of the ocean and sea gliders that move underwater.

NOAA supports 20 cooperative institutes across the country with researchers from 70 universities and research institutions.

Tia Brown, deputy director of the NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, said the renewed partnership with UH will continue to help NOAA achieve its mission of better understanding the ocean and atmosphere.

The research, data and information CIMAR generates, she said, will help the agency make sound decisions for healthy ecosystems, communities and a strong blue economy.

In a release, U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz described UH as a recognized leader on climate and marine science in the Indo-Pacific region.

“NOAA’s investment in UH will help us better forecast natural hazards like hurricanes, king tides, and tsunami; protect the health of our oceans and fisheries in the face of climate change; and maintain the U.S. leadership role in ocean and earth science in the region,” said Schatz, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee.