Deploying a water sampling rosette aboard the RV Southern Surveyor.

Future Research Vessel

The Future Research Vessel Project

In its May 2009 Budget, the Commonwealth Government committed A$120 million to the purchase of a new 85-metre ocean-going research vessel for the Marine National Facility.

The project is an initiative of the Australian Government being conducted as part of the Super Science Initiative and financed from the Education Investment Fund.

CSIRO has been commissioned to manage the Future Research Vessel Project that will deliver the new state-of-the-art vessel to replace the Research Vessel Southern Surveyor.

The process will take four years, with detailed specifications due by the end of 2010 and the vessel's completion expected by 2012.

The Future Research Vessel Project was launched in Hobart on 7 August 2009, by Senator the Hon Kim Carr, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research.

Senator Carr also announced a naming competition to give the Australian community a chance to name the new vessel. The grand prize will be the chance to perform your own experiment on the world's newest and finest ocean-going laboratory.

CSIRO will own and manage the new vessel. Its operation will be guided by an independent steering committee and funded by the Australian Government to support voyages mounted by Australian scientists and their overseas collaborators.

The Marine National Facility provides Australia's only dedicated blue-water research vessel capable of operating in our vast ocean territory. Australia needs a dedicated, large, multi-disciplinary blue-water research vessel.

CSIRO has a 25-year track record in managing the Marine National Facility. The Facility is overseen by a Ministerial-appointed steering committee, with representatives from academia, industry and government.

The Marine National Facility addresses key national research priorities, principally:

• responding to climate change and variability (prediction of climate is heavily reliant on ocean observations)
• developing offshore oil, gas and mineral resources (providing fundamental knowledge about the composition of Australia’s deep ocean estate)
• sustainable use of Australia’s unique biodiversity (in recent deep water surveys, 40 per cent of all organisms collected were new to science).

Learn more at Australia's Marine National Facility explores our oceans.