INVEST 2009

University of Bremen, Germany
September 23-25, 2009

INVEST is being organized as a large, multidisciplinary, international community meeting, whose focus is to define the scientific research goals of a new ocean drilling program, expected to replace IODP late in 2013. INVEST will feature invited keynote lectures, and plenary and working group sessions. These discussion and planning sessions are open to all interested scientists from both academia and industry as the principal opportunity to help shape the future of scientific ocean drilling beyond the current IODP. Submissions of white papers, which will be discussed in the working groups, are specifically welcome.

INVEST is expected to draw a very wide audience in both number and disciplines. Working groups will provide the opportunity for participants to directly impact the scope of science for the new program, and to promote new and emerging fields of science. A poster program will focus on: (1) ocean drilling related capabilities (e.g., surveying, shallow coring, observatories) by major oceanographic institutions; and (2) presentations by students and early career scientists.

A science plan, based on the outcome of INVEST, will be written by scientific community representatives selected shortly after INVEST. This science plan, to be drafted in 2010, will form one of the principal documents justifying the new drilling program. The unanimous support by a large number of your trusted colleagues to present keynote talks and chair working groups during the INVEST meeting testifies to the widely held appreciation of the unique and critical research opportunities offered by ocean drilling. However, establishing a new program will take the full support and active engagement by the broader community, including representatives of new and emerging fields.

Conference Themes and structure of INVEST

Main Conference Themes

• Co-evolution of Life and Planet
• Earth's Interior, Crust and Surface Interactions
• Climate Change - Records of the Past, Lessons for the Future
• Earth System Dynamics, Reservoirs and Fluxes
• Earth-Human-Earth Interactions
• Science Implementation

Each of the six Conference Themes will be discussed during a number of working group sessions addressing specific subthemes. A list of working groups, their topics and the session chairs can be found here.

Please contact steering committee members with questions or comments!