First Science Implementation and Policy Committee (SIPCom) & IWG+ meeting in Goa – January 2012:

IODP-India hosted the first meeting of the newly constituted Science Implementation and Policy Committee (SIPCom) of IODP in Goa during January 18-20, 2012. The meeting was attended by more than 40 international delegates from various IODP program member countries including USA, Japan, China, Australia, UK, France, Spain, Korea etc. to discuss the existing proposals for the scientific drilling as well as future course of actions pertaining to the new framework of the IODP program. The SIPCom meeting was preceded by International Working Group Plus (IWG+) meeting to discuss various administrative and management aspects of the new IODP program to be started from 2013.  In the meeting IODP-India was encouraged to submit a revised proposal under CPP scheme – Complementary Project Proposal (wherein a third party commitment of at least 70% of the science operation costs of the proposal is mandatory) with more international participation as per the recommendations of IODP-SAS panel which has been complied with.