Attachment 1 Request for Information.pdf

National Ocean Mapping, Exploration, and Characterization Council and National Oceanographic Partnership Program Forum on Building U.S. Ocean Technology and Data

Partnerships to Advance Ocean Mapping, Exploration, and Characterization

SUMMARY: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), on behalf of the National Ocean Mapping, Exploration, and Characterization (NOMEC) Council and the National Oceanographic Partnership Program (NOPP), requests information from interested members of the public regarding opportunities to strengthen cross-sector partnerships in support of U.S.

ocean mapping, exploration, and characterization priorities. Responses to this Request for Information (RFI) will inform development of the NOMEC and NOPP Partnership Forum on Building U.S. Ocean Technology and Data Partnerships to Advance Ocean Mapping, Exploration, and Characterization. In particular, the NOMEC Council and NOPP seek information regarding stakeholder priorities and capabilities; barriers to effective collaboration with the Federal Government; opportunities for enhanced cross-sector partnerships; and topics and activities that could support actionable outcomes from the Forum.

Respondents need not reply to all questions listed. For all submissions, clearly indicate which questions are being answered. Each individual or institution is requested to submit only one response. Responses may be posted, without change, on a Federal website. Accordingly, respondents should not submit business proprietary information, copyrighted information, personally identifiable information, or other information that should not be made publicly available.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

The National Ocean Mapping, Exploration, and Characterization (NOMEC) Council provides a coordinated Federal approach to mapping, exploring, and characterizing U.S. waters. The NOMEC Strategy and Implementation Plan outlines an ambitious suite of goals to completely map the seafloor of all U.S. coastal, ocean, and Great Lakes waters to the boundaries of the U.S.

Exclusive Economic Zone and Extended Continental Shelf and explore and characterize priority areas within them. The plan is available at: https://www.noaa.gov/ocean-science-and-technology-subcommittee/national-ocean-mapping-exploration-and-characterization-nomec-council/nomec-strategy-and-implementation-plan.

Achieving these objectives requires capabilities and resources that extend beyond any single Federal agency. Ocean mapping, exploration, and characterization depend on a broad range of technologies, platforms, expertise, data, infrastructure, and operational capabilities distributed across Federal agencies, industry, academia, non-governmental organizations, and other https://www.noaa.gov/ocean-science-and-technology-subcommittee/national-ocean-mapping-exploration-and-characterization-nomec-council/nomec-strategy-and-implementation-plan https://www.noaa.gov/ocean-science-and-technology-subcommittee/national-ocean-mapping-exploration-and-characterization-nomec-council/nomec-strategy-and-implementation-plan https://www.noaa.gov/ocean-science-and-technology-subcommittee/national-ocean-mapping-exploration-and-characterization-nomec-council/nomec-strategy-and-implementation-plan https://www.noaa.gov/ocean-science-and-technology-subcommittee/national-ocean-mapping-exploration-and-characterization-nomec-council/nomec-strategy-and-implementation-plan sectors. Effective coordination across these communities can expand access to capabilities, accelerate technology development and adoption, increase the value and use of collected data, and support progress toward shared national objectives.

Recognizing the potential role of non-Federal partnerships in advancing national ocean priorities, the Ocean Research Advisory Panel (ORAP) examined public-private partnerships in the ocean enterprise and, in June 2026, issued the report Supporting Public-Private Partnerships to Advance Emerging Ocean Technologies. The report is available at:

https://www.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/2026-06/508%20compliant_Letter%20and%20ORAP- Report-002%282026%29.pdf.

Building on the priorities established through NOMEC and informed by ORAP's examination of public-private partnerships, the NOMEC Council and the National Oceanographic Partnership Program (NOPP) are developing a partnership forum focused on actionable strategies to strengthen collaboration among Federal and non-Federal organizations engaged in or benefiting from ocean mapping, exploration, and characterization.

The Forum is intended to move beyond information exchange by identifying areas in which Federal and non-Federal capabilities and resources can be brought together to advance shared objectives, as well as potential mechanisms and follow-on activities to support continued collaboration. The Forum will also provide an opportunity to identify barriers to effective partnerships and to consider approaches for improving sustained engagement across sectors.

The NOMEC Council and NOPP are issuing this RFI to obtain public input before finalizing the Forum's scope and agenda. Responses will help identify stakeholder priorities, capabilities, partnership opportunities, barriers to collaboration, and potential approaches for sustained engagement and will inform the topics and intended outcomes of the Forum.

Purpose of the Forum

The Forum is intended to:

1. Discover and describe current-day overlapping interests in advancing ocean, coastal, and lakebed mapping, exploration,and characterization between federal and non-federal sectors;

2. Highlight successful examples of cross-sector partnerships that have advanced science and/or technology innovation for ocean, coastal and lakebed mapping, exploration, and characterization;

3. Identify concrete follow-on cross-sector activities that can advance progress on shared NOMEC goals; and https://www.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/2026-06/508%20compliant_Letter%20and%20ORAP-Report-002%282026%29.pdf https://www.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/2026-06/508%20compliant_Letter%20and%20ORAP-Report-002%282026%29.pdf https://www.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/2026-06/508%20compliant_Letter%20and%20ORAP-Report-002%282026%29.pdf https://www.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/2026-06/508%20compliant_Letter%20and%20ORAP-Report-002%282026%29.pdf

4. Develop a shared vision for cross-sector engagement on ocean mapping, exploration, and characterization goals and identify pathways to translate this vision into actionable objectives.

Purpose of This Request for Information

Through this RFI, the NOMEC Council and NOPP seek information from a wide range of stakeholders, including academia, private industry, non-governmental organizations, and other relevant organizations and institutions, to inform development of the Forum. The NOMEC Council and NOPP are particularly interested in stakeholder roles and interests; topics that should be addressed at the Forum; challenges related to partnering with the Federal Government in this field; opportunities for enhanced cross-sector partnerships; resources and capabilities that could be leveraged; and interest in additional engagement with the Forum planning committee.

Information received in response to this RFI will be considered by the Forum planning committee to develop the Forum agenda, refining the Forum objectives and desired outcomes, and identify opportunities for continued cross-sector engagement.

Questions To Inform Development of the NOMEC and NOPP Partnership Forum

The NOMEC Council and NOPP invite interested parties to provide responses to any or all of the following questions:

1. What role does your organization have in conducting ocean mapping, exploration, or characterization activities, and/or in using the data, information, products, or discoveries resulting from these activities?

2. How does your organization use or benefit from ocean mapping, exploration, or characterization activities, data, products, or capabilities?

3. What topics, challenges, or opportunities should be addressed during the Forum to support effective cross-sector collaboration?

4. What non-financial challenges or barriers has your organization encountered when partnering, or seeking to partner, with the Federal Government on ocean mapping, exploration, or characterization activities?

5. What specific opportunities could benefit from enhanced collaboration between Federal and non-Federal organizations in ocean mapping, exploration, or characterization?

Where possible, respondents are encouraged to identify the relevant need or opportunity, region(s) of interest, and the types of capabilities or resources that different partners could contribute.

6. What capabilities or resources, including technology, data, infrastructure, expertise, innovation, operational capacity, opportunities for demonstration or piloting, or convening and networking capabilities, could your organization leverage for greater cross-sector partnership?

7. What mechanisms, activities, or approaches could help sustain productive cross-sector engagement following the Forum?

8. Would your organization be willing to participate in a discussion with the Forum planning committee to provide additional information that may assist in development of the Forum agenda?

9. Is there anything else you would like to add or suggest with regards to this Forum that hasn’t been addressed by the previous questions?

For more information on the NOMEC Council and NOPP, please see the following links:

NOMEC Council: https://www.noaa.gov/ocean-science-and-technology-subcommittee/national-ocean-mapping-exploration-and-characterization-nomec-council

NOPP:

https://nopp.org/ https://www.noaa.gov/ocean-science-and-technology-subcommittee/national-ocean-mapping-exploration-and-characterization-nomec-council https://www.noaa.gov/ocean-science-and-technology-subcommittee/national-ocean-mapping-exploration-and-characterization-nomec-council https://nopp.org/