Introduction
The UMass/NOAA Cooperative Marine Education and Research (CMER) Program is now in its seventh year. Established in early 1989 under a Cooperative Agreement between the University of Massachusetts (UMass) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the CMER Program combines university and agency expertise to address marine issues affecting the Commonwealth, region, and nation.The Northeast Fisheries Science Center of NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has provided at least $50,000 per year as base support for the Program (Figure 1). NOAA also supports an on-campus NOAA employee who serves as CMER Program Director and member of the UMass graduate faculty. In return, UMass provides office space, administrative and clerical support for the CMER Program Director, and a reduced overhead rate on CMER projects. Additional monetary support for the CMER Program is provided from other NOAA units and other federal agencies. All studies performed under the CMER Program must be consistent with the objectives and conditions of the Cooperative Agreement.
In a truly cooperative program, all parties contribute towards the objectives of the program beyond simple monetary reimbursement. The CMER Program is no exception. The Cooperative Agreement is intended "to provide for active university/agency cooperation in the advancement, organization, and operation of marine research, education, in-service training, and demonstration programs." The Cooperative Agreement requires NOAA "to cooperate with UMass in the planning, outlining, developing" of these activities. The CMER Program provides administrative oversight and control over activities funded through the Cooperative Agreement.
As of October 1995, cooperative projects funded through the UMass/NOAA CMER Program have totaled close to $900,000 (Figure 1), have involved 24 faculty and staff, and have supported close to 70 undergraduate and graduate students (Table 1, Appendix I). Approximately one-half of the projects have addressed aspects of the biology and life history of estuarine and marine species; topics addressed by the other projects are fishery bycatch, sampling techniques and statistics, business management, education and training, and fishery product quality, safety, and use (figures 2 and 3). On the NOAA side, agency scientists have been participating in the CMER Program as principal investigators, research associates, academic instructors, and chairs and members of graduate student committees (Table 2, Appendix II) in addition to collaborating in the design and execution of cooperative research projects. A considerable amount of facilities and equipment have also been donated to the CMER Program by UMass and NOAA (Table 3, Appendix III).
CMER Home
Page 2