Mandate

ESSAC is the Science Committee of ECORD. ESSAC is responsible for the scientific planning and coordination of ECORD’s contribution to and participation in IODP. The main purpose of ESSAC will be to maximize ECORD’s scientific and technological contribution to IODP.

As agreed by the ECORD Council ESSAC is funded by the CNRS through the ECORD Managing Agency (EMA).

Tasks and Interactions

  • Advising ECORD funding organisations and ECORD Council members on IODP issues
  • Coordinating expedition applications, nominating shipboard participants and reviewing quotas of shipboard scientists between participating countries;
  • Coordinating ECORD Training, Education and Outreach Programmes;
  • Evaluating applications and nominating scientists to participate to the Science Board of the ECORD Facility Board (EFB), the JOIDES Resolution Facility Board (JRFB) and the Chikyu IODP Board (CIB);
  • Nominating representatives (delegates and alternates) on IODP advisory panels;
  • Initiating and monitoring workshops on specific scientific themes and syntheses of European IODP programmes;
  • Providing stimulation and guidance for the writing of drilling proposals in accordance with the IODP Science Plan and encouraging IODP-related activities among participating countries;
  • Assisting and advising EMA and ESO on public outreach.

Membership

ESSAC consists of a national delegate and alternate from each ECORD member country (i.e. 14 European countries plus Canada). Each country has equal voting representation. ESSAC meets twice a year.

ESSAC is managed via the ESSAC Office, which resides with the Chair of the committee and rotates every two years. The current office (2022-2024) is located at the National Institute of Oceanography and Experimental Geophysics (OGS – Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e di Geofisica Sperimentale), Trieste, Italy.
Angelo Camerlenghi is the Chair and Hanno Kinkel the Science Coordinator – Contact: essac@inogs.it
Antony Morris (UK) is the Vice-Chair from January 2022 to December 2024.

Past ESSAC offices:

  • 2018-2021 – University of Plymouth, UK – Antony Morris and Hanno Kinkel
  • 2016-2017 – GEOMAR, Germany – Jan Behrmann and Hanno Kinkel
  • 2015-2014 – ETH, Switzerland – Gretchen Fruh-Green and Julia Gutierrez Pastor
  • 2013-2012 – IACT, Spain – Carlota Escutia Dotti and Julia Gutierrez Pastor
  • 2011-2010 – AWI, Germany –Rudiger Stein and Jeannette Lezius
  • 2009-2008 – CEREGE, France – Gilbert Camoin and Bonnie Wolff-Boenisch
  • 2005 – 2007 –  Cardiff University, UK – Chris MacLeod (Julian Pearce (ESSAC acting co-chair 2006) and Federica Lenci/Elspeth Urquhart
  • 2005-2003 – University of Amsterdam, Netherlands – Jeroen Kenter and Valentina Zampetti

 

More information about the mandate, tasks and membership of ESSAC can be found in the ECORD Memorandum of Understanding and the Terms of Reference (Revised June 2015) - pdf .

Country

Delegate

Alternate
Austria Michael Strasser Walter Kurz
Canada John Jamieson Dominique Weis
Denmark Marit-Solveig Seidenkrantz Paul Knutz
Finland Joonas Virtasolo Christoph Beier
France Anne Le Friant Georges Ceuleneer
Germany Susann Henkel André Bornemann
Ireland David Hardy Xavier Monteys
Italy (Chair) Angelo Camerlenghi Riccardo Tribuzio
Netherlands Martin Ziegler Jeroen van der Lubbe
Norway Jan Sverre Laberg Helga F. Kleiven
Portugal Davide Gamboa João C. Duarte
Spain María Angeles Bárcena Pernia  Fernando Bohoyo Muñoz
Sweden Matt O’Regan  
Switzerland Gretchen Früh-Green  
United Kingdom Kate Littler Uisdean Nicholson

 

ESSAC delegates meet twice a year in spring and fall. Since 2013, ESSAC delegates meet for one day before joining Council delegates at the Council-ESSAC  annual meeting (>> reports).
Before every meeting an Agenda Book including background information related to the agenda items and abstracts of the scheduled presentations is prepared.

After each meeting the ESSAC minutes are sent to every country delegate for review and approval. The minutes also contain action items, arising during discussions. They are identified whenever actions are needed and summarised in a task list. It is the task of the ESSAC Office to carry out these actions or to monitor that tasks assigned to other persons are executed and report back to ESSAC delegates (and other ECORD partners) on the results. As coordination and communication are very complex between the ECORD member countries on the one hand and between ECORD and the other IODP partners (The United States, Japan, China, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand (ANZIC), India and Brasil) on the other hand, arising action items are quite diverse.

Motions proposed by the ESSAC delegates are also included in the minutes. Decisions related to the motions are taken via consensus or vote. Each ESSAC delegate has equal voting rights and weights.

Recent ESSAC  meetings:

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