Second International Indian Ocean Expedition (2015-2020)

The Special Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR, now the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research) and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO developed and managed the first International Indian Ocean Expedition (IIOE) in the early 1960s. 

SCOR, IOC, the Sustained Indian Ocean Biogeochemistry and Ecosystem Research (SIBER) project of the SCOR/International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme Integrated Marine Biogeochemistry and Ecosystem Research (IMBER) project, the Indian Ocean Global Ocean Observing System (IOGOOS) Panel, and the Indian Ocean group of the Climate Variability and Response (CLIVAR) project are developing plans for a Second International Indian Ocean Expedition for the period 2015 to 2020. Participating organizations have developed several different groups to prepare for the IIOE-2:

Reference Group: This IOC-led group has met three times so far and has sought to engage a wide variety of scientists and policymakers from the Indian Ocean region in identifying scientific and societal research priorities.  Reference Group reports can be found on the IOC Perth Web site.

Science Plan Development Committee (SPDC): in 2014, SCOR formed a committee to develop a Research Plan for the IIOE-2. This plan will be based on the foundation of the Reference Group's work and will feed into an Interim Planning Committee for the IIOE-2, co-sponsored by IOC, SCOR, and IOGOOS. 

International Symposium Planning Committee (ISPC): This group is co-chaired by SCOR, IOC, and India. Its purpose is to plan an international symposium in Goa, India on 30 Nov.-4 Dec. 2015 and focused on Indian Ocean research. The first cruise of the IIOE-2 will be launched at the end of the symposium.

Interim Planning Committee (IPC): This IOC-led group will make recommendations to the IOC General Assembly in June 2015 as to whether IOC should join SCOR as a sponsor of IIOE-2.

Capacity Building: Organizations involved in the IIOE-2 each have its own unique and complementary capacity-building approaches. The resources of each organization will be applied to the IIOE-2 and a coordinated plan will be developed to desribe the set of approaches.