UNOLS, Ship Time Requests, Ship Scheduling and Shared Use Equipment

Accessing the U.S. Academic Research Fleet

A guide for scientists to ships, facilities, and the ship-time request & scheduling process

The Academic Research Fleet is a shared national resource of 16 oceanographic research vessels, plus deep-submergence and autonomous vehicles and specialized equipment, owned by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Office of Naval Research (ONR), and U.S. universities and laboratories. The fleet is managed by 14 operating institutions and coordinated through the University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS), a consortium of 61 academic oceanographic institutions and federal agencies. NSF is the cognizant federal agency and supports roughly 70% of fleet operations, with additional support from ONR and NOAA. All ARF vessels and facilities are open to the broader public and private research community, coordinated through the operating institution and UNOLS, which ensures equitable, priority-based access. Every vessel meets UNOLS Research Vessel Safety Standards, which exceed baseline U.S. Coast Guard requirements.

Research vessels: The fleet spans Global, Ocean, Regional/Intermediate, and Coastal/Local class vessels, sized and equipped for everything from open-ocean, long-duration expeditions to nearshore work. See the full roster and specifications at UNOLS-Designated Vessels. Deep submergence: the National Deep Submergence Facility (NDSF), hosted at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, operates Alvin (human-occupied vehicle), Jason (ROV), and Sentry (AUV). Other facilities: shared technical and equipment resources — including the Multibeam Advisory Committee, Ocean Data Facility, Rolling Deck to Repository (R2R) data services, portable/shared-use equipment pools (vans, winches, wire rope, OBS, gravimeters/magnetometers), and the UNOLS Technician Pool — are described at Other UNOLS Facilities.

Ship time is requested through a Ship-time and Marine Equipment (SME) application, submitted alongside your proposal in the Marine Facilities Planning (MFP) system.  Completed SMEs must be submitted with all NSF proposals requesting ship time.  SMEs for Global or Ocean class vessels are to be requested ~18 months before the first proposed cruise, while SMEs for Intermediate-, Regional-, or Local-class vessels should be submitted 8-12 months. 

SMEs request general information about your project to make sure that your project is put on the appropriate ship.  START EARLY!  .   The SME asks for project info, cruise location (ports and coordinates or a research area), cruise dates and transit days, ship selection with justification and science-party/technical-support needs, user-supplied equipment, and environmental-impact information.  Although the SME is relatively basic, it does take a bit of time to complete.  Please reach out to the UNOLS office (alice@unols.org) with any questions!  See this quick tutorial on creating an SME here.  An MFP guide, including a list of other short tutorials, can be found here. 

After a project is funded, the PI must update their funding status in MFP to indicate they are funded.  The UNOLS scheduling committees then build vessel schedules that fit each project's needs.  Schedules begin to be developed the year prior with the goal of publishing final schedules by the fall of the previous year (e.g. Schedules for CY 2027 come out in the fall of 2026).  The scheduling process is complicated and must juggle many competing constraints — ship capability and date restrictions, multi-ship and shared-use equipment requirements, port logistics, foreign clearances and environmental permits, weather, maintenance, funding decisions, and more.   For more information on the scheduling process please reach out to doug@unols.org