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The National Geographic Society/Waitt Grants Program funds projects that require venture capital, supporting exceptional projects while foregoing a time-consuming peer-review process. NGS/Waitt grants are able to fund "proof of concept" research for applicants at an earlier stage in their careers than other NGS grant programs.
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| CATALYST Program Launches First Expedition
The Waitt Institute for Discovery and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution have joined
forces to launch the CATALYST Program, making available for the first time a versatile
and highly portable deep-sea tool kit and operations team, which can be rapidly deployed
anywhere in the world. This unprecedented collaboration features the Waitt Institute’s two
newly built Hydroid REMUS 6000 Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs), which can explore
depths of up to 6,000 meters, or 3.7 miles, below the ocean’s surface.
The CATALYST ONE expedition team sailed home aboard the R/V Seward Johnson on December 10 energized by the discovery of three never-before identified Lophelia coral reefs. The science team, led by John Reed of the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute (HBOI) at Florida Atlantic University, spent six days at sea utilizing Waitt’s two 6,000-meter autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) to remotely map the ocean floor in a region under consideration for status as a Marine Protected Area. MORE > |
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With the newly launched Program for Ocean Exploration and Conservation, the Waitt Institute for Discovery is committed to enabling interdisciplinary research deep beneath the planet's last frontier of discovery. The ocean has much to reveal to us about the earth's natural and cultural history -- from mysterious new life forms to long-lost ships of ancient seafaring cultures.
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