The Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) is an international marine research program that explores Earth's history and structure recorded in seafloor sediments and rocks, and monitors subseafloor environments. IODP builds upon the earlier successes of the Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) and Ocean Drilling Program (ODP), which revolutionized our view of Earth history and global processes through ocean basin exploration. IODP greatly expands the reach of these previous programs by using multiple drilling platforms, including riser, riserless, and mission-specific, to achieve its scientific goals. These principal themes are outlined in the Initial Science Plan: Earth, Oceans and Life: Scientific Investigations of the Earth System Using Multiple Drilling Platforms and New Technologies. (3.1 MB).The science plan outlines three broad scientific themes for IODP :

• The deep biosphere and the subseafloor ocean;
• Environmental change, processes and effects; and
• Solid earth cycles and geodynamics.

Mission and Vision

IODP Vision
To provide vital information of the Earth system with which humankind has increasing interaction, through exciting expeditions to “inner space” realized by multiple-platform scientific drilling.

IODP Mission
The Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP), an international scientific research program supported by 26 countries, advances scientific understanding of the Earth by monitoring, drilling, sampling, and analyzing subseafloor environments. IODP:

• deploys state-of-the-art ocean drilling technologies as its essential tool of discovery,
• unifies the international research community to explore Earth as a system,
• advances future research and discovery through dissemination of data and samples from global archives, and
• provides scientific context for global awareness of geohazards and environmental change.

Key Relationships

IODP is funded by eight entities acting as international partners:

• The U.S. National Science Foundation ( NSF ) and Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology ( MEXT ) are Lead Agencies .
• The European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling ( ECORD ) is a Contributing Member .
• The People's Republic of China Ministry of Science and Technology ( MOST ) is an Associate Member.
• Interim Asian Consortium, represented by the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources ( KIGAM ) , is an Associate Member .
• Australian-New Zealand IODP Consortium ( ANZIC )
• India Ministry of Earth Science ( MoES )
• Coordination for Improvement of Higher Education Personnel ( CAPES )

The Ocean Drilling Program office at NSF (part of the Marine Geosciences section of the Division of Ocean Sciences, within the Directorate for Geosciences) is responsible for administering commingled funds directed towards the science operating costs (SOCs) of all IODP operations. These commingled funds come from the international partners as part of their membership fees used for the conduct of IODP science. Platform operating costs (POCs) are the responsibility of the agency supplying the platform capability.

Read more about:

• IODP Council
• Implementing Organizations
• Program Member Offices