Science for Informed Decisions
BOEM must comply with numerous environmental statutes, regulations, and executive orders to carry out its mission. BOEM is dedicated to acquiring and using the highest quality scientific information in support of Bureau decisions. To that end, the Environmental Studies Program (ESP) employs a rigorous planning, review, and procurement process to meet the nation's environmental research needs for Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) resource assessments.
ESP staff from Headquarters and Regional program offices prepare the annual Studies Development Plan (SDP) to cover a two-year planning period. The plan includes brief study descriptions or profiles that describe proposed studies for the upcoming fiscal year and for one successive year. Proposed studies are evaluated for program relevance, programmatic timeliness, and scientific merit.
BOEM has formulated its Fiscal Year 2025-2026 Studies Development Plan covering all BOEM energy and minerals activities. It includes studies proposed for Alaska, Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, and Pacific OCS areas.
Additionally, BOEM consults with the Committee on Offshore Science and Assessment as a source of independent, scientifically credible, and objective information on topics of interest for the environmental studies and assessment activities and to support discussions on relevant issues. Collectively, these inputs contribute to the development of research plans.
BOEM maintains a complete description of ongoing BOEM studies by region. Each listing describes the research being conducted, the scientific discipline, the institution performing the work, the cost of the effort, timeframe, and any associated publications, presentations, or affiliated web sites.
Previous SDPs
2024-2025 | 2023-2024 | 2022-2023 | 2021-2022 | 2020-2022 | 2019-2021 | 2018-2020 | 2017-2019 | 2016-2018 | 2015-2017 | 2014-2016 | 2013-2015 | 2012-2014 | 2011-2013
National Studies List
While the SDP serves a primarily internal planning function, it is a publicly available document and is used to communicate the proposed studies both internally within BOEM and externally with potential partners and other interested parties. The SDP and resulting studies undergo peer review at several stages to ensure the quality of the work proposed. When completed, the annual SDP forms the basis for the National Studies List (NSL), which represents the proposed studies for a given fiscal year, subject to the availability of funds.
To formulate the NSL, each region and program develops a priority order for their studies proposed. These lists are evaluated again by Headquarters, principally considering program relevance, timing, and budgetary constraints. Discussions are conducted with each of the regional/program offices, and when consensus is achieved, the NSL is recommended for approval. Once the annual appropriations for the Department have been approved, studies on the NSL are procured via competitive procurements, cooperative agreements with a State institution or university, or through inter/intra agency agreements with other Federal agencies. BOEM highly values studies procured through the National Oceanographic Partnership Program (NOPP) with other governmental, industry, academic, tribal, non-governmental, and foundation partners. This allows all the parties to leverage financial, human, maritime, and other technological assets to meet mission objectives. BOEM's ESP seeks innovative approaches and technologies to help us advance the science program.
It is important to note that the NSL is subject to change throughout the course of the year as conditions warrant and due to budgetary constraints.
National Studies List for 2024
NSL # | Study Title | Discipline | Procurement Type | BOEM Contact |
| New Requests | ||||
| AK-24-01 | Updating Lower Cook Inlet Seabird Colony Counts | Habitat & Ecology | Interagency Agreement | Burril |
| AK-24-02 | Adaptation of a Cook Inlet Circulation Model and Calculations | Physical Oceanography | Cooperative Agreement | Smith |
| AK-24-03 | Alaska Coastal Marine Institute | Habitat & Ecology | Cooperative Agreement | Burril |
| Continuing Requirements | ||||
| AK-20-07 | Early Detection Plan for Marine Non-Native Species on the Arctic Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) | Fates & Effects | Interagency Agreement | Burril |
| AK-21-03 | Resource Areas to Support Oil Spill Risk Analysis (OSRA) and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) Needs in the Cook Inlet Region | Marine Mammals and Protected Species | Cooperative Agreement | Burril |
| AK-22-01 | Lower Cook Inlet Fish and Invertebrate Community Composition, Distribution, and Density | Habitat & Ecology | Interagency Agreement | Burril |
| USGS Requirements | ||||
| AK-20-11 | The Impact of Marine Fish Communities on Red-throated Loon Productivity in the Beaufort Sea | Habitat & Ecology | USGS | Burril |
NSL # | Study Title | Discipline | Procurement Type | BOEM Contact |
| New Requests | ||||
| AT-23-04 | Baseline Tourism and Recreation Along the Gulf of Maine | Socio-Economics | Cooperative Agreement | Bigger |
| AT-23-01 | Gulf of Maine Socioeconomic Impacts of OCS Wind Development on Fishing | Socio-Economics | Contract | Howson |
| AT-23-05 | Gulf of Maine Fish and Invertebrate Benthic Habitat Baseline Data Collection | Habitat & Ecology | Interagency Agreement | Jensen |
| AT-23-06 | Offshore Wind Turbine Visibility Study | Socio-Economics | Interagency Agreement | McCarty |
| AT-24-01 | BOEM Offshore Wind Energy Facility Emission Estimating Tool Version 3.0 | Air Quality | Contract | Slayton |
| AT-24-02 | Improving Methods and Identifying Best Practices for Defining and Delineating Low-Relief Hardbottom Essential Fish Habitat in Wind Energy Areas – Case Study in Carolina Long Bay | Habitat & Ecology | Interagency Agreement | Jensen |
| AT-24-03 | Ocean Environmental Monitoring and Sound Propagation Study at Mid-Atlantic Shelfbreak Offshore Wind Area | Physical Oceanography | Cooperative Agreement | Guan |
| AT-24-04 | Collecting Fisheries Ecological Knowledge (FEK) for Use in Gulf of Maine Offshore Wind Planning | Socio-Economics | Cooperative Agreement | Jensen |
| Continuing Requirements | ||||
| AT-20-02 | Atlantic Marine Assessment Program for Protected Species (AMAPPS) III B and C—Photogrammetric Aerial Surveys to Improve Detection and Classification of Seabirds, Cetaceans, and Sea Turtles (Fish and Wildlife Service) | Marine Mammals and Protected Species | Interagency Agreement | White |
| AT-20-05-02 | Real-time Opportunity for Development Environmental Observations (RODEO) II - Task 2 | Fates & Effects | Contract | Bigger |
| AT-22-01b | Offshore Wind Impacts on Oceanographic Processes: North Carolina to New York (Delft3D) | Physical Oceanography | Contract | Draher |
| AT-22-06 | Mapping abundance, distribution, and foraging ecology of gray seals in the North Atlantic | Marine Mammals and Protected Species | Cooperative Agreement | Hooker |
| AT-22-07 | Exploring the Connectivity Among Offshore Wind Turbines | Fates & Effects | Cooperative Agreement | Jensen |
| AT-22-13 | Investigating Persistent Super Aggregations of Right Whales and Their Prey Near Nantucket Shoals | Habitat & Ecology | Interagency Agreement | White |
| AT-22-x14 | Passive Acoustic Monitoring in the Massachusetts and Rhode Island Wind Energy Areas in Support of the Partnership for an Offshore Wind Energy Regional Observation Network (POWERON) | Fates & Effects | Contract | Baker |
NSL # | Study Title | Discipline | Procurement Type | BOEM Contact |
| New Requests | ||||
| GM-24-01 | Understanding Impacts of Offshore Carbon Sequestration on the Marine Environment: Informing Operational Management Needs Through Focused Literature Review and Synthesis | Fates & Effects | Contract | Batum |
| GM-24-02 | Northern Gulf of Mexico Monitoring for Protected Species | Marine Mammals and Protected Species | Interagency Agreement | Karrigan |
| GM-24-03 | Gulf Coast Community and Cultural Impact Baselines Survey | Socio-Economics | Contract | Sorset |
| Continuing Requirements | ||||
| GM-21-01 | Offshore Analysis of Seafloor Instability and Sediments (OASIS Partnership) With Applications to Offshore Safety and Marine Archaeology | Physical Oceanography | Interagency Agreement, Cooperative Agreement | Jones |
| GM-22-02 | Live Forecasts of Migratory Bird Movements Offshore to Monitor Potential Avian Interactions with Wind Development | Habitat & Ecology | Cooperative Agreement | White |
| GM-22-03 | Long-Term Coral Reef Monitoring at Flower Garden Banks (FGB), Gulf of Mexico: 2022-2025 | Habitat & Ecology | Interagency Agreement | Caporaso |
| GM-22-05 | Reevaluating BOEM’s Guidelines for Identifying Submerged Pre-Contact Archaeological Sites in the Gulf of Mexico | Socio-Economics | Cooperative Agreement | Damour |
| GM-22-06 | Benthic Community Characterization at BOEM “No Activities Zones” | Habitat & Ecology | Interagency Agreement | Caporaso |
NSL # | Study Title | Discipline | Procurement Type | BOEM Contact |
| New Requests | ||||
| PC-24-01 | Port Infrastructure Needs of Commercial and Recreational Fisheries along the US West Coast | Socio-Economics | Contract | Biedron |
| PC-24-02 | Traditional Native Hawaiian Voyaging and Cultural Fishing and Boating Practices on the OCS | Socio-Economics | TBD | Makua |
| PC-22-01 | O`ahu’s Traditional Cultural Landscapes | Socio-Economics | Interagency Agreement | Ball |
| PC-24-03 | Characterization of Water Column Habitats to Understand Potential Impacts from Deepwater Energy and Mineral Development | Habitat & Ecology | TBD | Le |
| PC-22-07a | Maritime Heritage of American Samoa | Socio-Economics | Interagency Agreement | Ball |
| Continuing Requirements | ||||
| PC-21-03 | Partners in Offshore Wind Environmental Research – California (POWER–California) | Habitat & Ecology | Interagency Agreement | Potter |
| PC-22-03 | Birds, Bats, and Beyond: Networked Wildlife Tracking along the Pacific Coast of the U.S. | Habitat & Ecology | Interagency Agreement | Pereksta |
| PC-22-07b | Maritime Heritage of Guam and Northern Mariana Islands | Socio-Economics | Cooperative Agreement | Ball |
| PC-23-01 | BOEM-MARINe (Multi-Agency Rocky Intertidal Network) | Habitat & Ecology | Cooperative Agreement | TBD |
| PC-23-02 | Pacific Marine Assessment Partnership for Protected Species (PacMAPPS) II | Marine Mammals and Protected Species | Interagency Agreements | Reeb |
| PC-23-03 | Facilitating Resilience and Adaptation in Commercial Fisheries in Response to Offshore Renewable Energy Development and Climate Change | Socio-Economics | Cooperative/Interagency Agreements | Schroeder |
| PC-23-04 | Characterization of the Distribution, Movements, and Foraging Habitat of Endangered Leatherback Turtles in Designated Critical Habitat off the U.S. West Coast, Phase I | Marine Mammals and Protected Species | Interagency Agreement/Contract | Reeb |
| USGS Requirements | ||||
| PC-19-06b | California Deepwater Investigations and Groundtruthing (Cal DIG) II | Fates & Effects | USGS | Potter |
NSL # | Study Title | Discipline | Procurement Type | BOEM Contact |
| New Requests | ||||
| MM-23-03 | Accounting for Scale Bias in Marine Minerals Studies | Habitat & Ecology | Cooperative Agreement | Hansen |
| MM-23-01 | Evaluating Sediment Mobility on the Gulf of Mexico Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) | Physical Oceanography | Interagency Agreement | Rice |
| MM-24-01 | Developing a Critical Minerals Environmental Assessment Framework (CMEAF) for Critical Minerals Activities | Habitat & Ecology | Interagency Agreement | Knorr |
| MM-24-02 | In Situ Sampling at a Historic Equipment Test Site on the Blake Plateau | Habitat & Ecology | Interagency Agreement | Rasser |
| MM-24-03 | Extrapolating Benthic Recovery Estimates Beyond Single-project Constraints | Habitat & Ecology | Cooperative Agreement | Hansen |
| Continuing Requirements | ||||
| MM-19-01 | Ecological Function and Recovery of Biological Communities within Sand Shoal Habitats within the Gulf of Mexico | Fates & Effects | Contract | Rogers |
| MM-20-01 | New York Bight (NYB) Fish, Fisheries, and Sand Features: In the Field | Habitat & Ecology | Cooperative Agreement | Hansen |
| MM-20-02 | Sandbridge Highly Migratory Species: Fish Distribution on a Dredged Shoal | Fates & Effects | Cooperative Agreement | Hansen |
| MM-21-01 | Shallow Water Geophysical Mapping by Autonomous Underwater Vehicles: Feasibility Assessment, Field Testing, and Best Practice | Physical Oceanography | Contract | Cofield |
| MM-21-02 | Sea Turtle Avoidance Technology Solutions (STATS) | Marine Mammals and Protected Species | Contract | Levenson |
| MM-21-04 | Seamount Benthic Mapping and Characterization, in support of Critical Minerals and Deep Corals of the Aleutian Islands | Habitat & Ecology | Interagency Agreement | Knorr |
| MM-22-02 | Sturgeon Response to Dredge Activities and Recovery After Trawl Capture Near Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Sand Resources | Habitat & Ecology | Interagency Agreement | Hansen |
| MM-22-03 | Fish Fry: Frying Pan Shoals Ecosystem Dynamics | Habitat & Ecology | Cooperative Agreement | Hansen |
| USGS Requirements | ||||
| MM-22-02 | Sturgeon Response to Dredge Activities and Recovery After Trawl Capture Near Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Sand Resources | Habitat & Ecology | USGS | Hansen |
NSL # | Study Title | Discipline | Procurement Type | BOEM Contact |
| New Requests | ||||
| NT-24-01 | National Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Oil Spill Occurrence Rates | Fates & Effects | Contract | Ji |
| NT-24-02 | Assessing the Effectiveness of Offshore Wind Lease Stipulations on Engagement with Underserved Communities | Socio-Economics | Contract | Mansfield |
| NT-24-03 | Socio-Cultural and Economic Impacts of Changing Energy Trends | Socio-Economics | Contract | Mansfield |
| NT-24-04 | Future Directions of Physical Oceanography Research on Offshore Renewable Energy Development at the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management | Physical Oceanography | Contract | Li |
| NT-24-05 | Synthesis of Climate Change Sensitivity and Information Gaps in Priority Management Areas of the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) | Habitat & Ecology | Contract | Sharuga |
| NT-24-06 | Using Coast Guard’s AIS Vessel and Federal Aviation Administration’s NextGen Helicopter Data to Track BOEM-Authorized Activities | Air Quality | Contract | Wecht |
| NT-24-07 | Using Very High-Resolution Satellite Imagery to Detect Cetaceans | Marine Mammals and Protected Species | Interagency Agreement | White |
| Continuing Requirements | ||||
| NT-19-07 | Archaeological Investigations in Support of Development of Energy and Mineral Resources on the US Outer Continental Shelf | Socio-Economics | Contract | Horrell |
| NT-20-03 | Next Generation of Animal Telemetry | Habitat & Ecology | Interagency Agreement | Levenson |
| NT-20-06 | Continued Partnership with National Museum of Natural History, Department of Invertebrate Zoology (NMNH-IZ) for a Voucher-Based, Genomic Reference Facility for Ocean Biodiversity | Information Management | Interagency Agreement | Blythe |
| NT-21-01 | Facilitating Strategic Partnerships in Support of the Presidential Memo on Ocean Mapping, Exploration, and Characterization | Habitat & Ecology | Interagency Agreement | Mueller |
| NT-21-04 | Spatial and Acoustic Ecology of Understudied ESA Listed Marine Mammals | Marine Mammals and Protected Species | Interagency Agreement | Levenson |
| NT-21-06 | Mortality Risk for Whale and Basking Sharks During Energy and Mineral Operations | Habitat & Ecology | Contract | Levenson |
| NT-21-x15 | Standardizing Integrated Ecosystem-Based Assessment Nationally | Information Management | Contract | Horrell |
| NT-22-01 | Capacity Building and Collaboration with the Aquinnah and Mashpee Wampanoag Tribes | Socio-Economics | Cooperative Agreement | Horrell |
| NT-22-02 | Offshore Air Quality (AQ) from NASA’s Satellites and Related Experiments | Air Quality | Interagency Agreement | Wecht |
| NT-22-03 | Understanding Impacts of Habitat Modifications on Commercial Fisheries and Apex Predator Distribution | Habitat & Ecology | Contract | Levenson |
| NT-22-04 | Automated Detection and Classification of Wildlife Targets in Digital Aerial Imagery – Phase II | Habitat & Ecology | Interagency Agreement | White |
| NT-23-02 | NASA Aircraft Measurements in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) | Air Quality | Interagency Agreement | Wecht |
| NT-23-07 | Investigating Shoreline Fumigation Algorithms in Offshore and Coastal Dispersion Model for AERMOD – Part 2 of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Inter-agency Agreement to Improve AERMOD for Overwater Applications | Air Quality | Interagency Agreement | Merritt |
| NT-23-09 | Offshore Wind Farm Impacts on Pacific Upwelling, Nutrients, and Productivity | Habitat & Ecology | Cooperative Agreement | Kilpatrick |
| NT-23-10 | Feel the Vibrations: Behavioral Response by Fish and Invertebrates to Particle Motion/Substrate Vibration from Pile-Driving | Habitat & Ecology | Contract | Kates Varghese |
| NT-23-11 | Substrate-Borne Vibroacoustic Disturbances from Offshore Wind Construction: Measurements, Physical Characteristics, and Propagation | Fates & Effects | Cooperative Agreement | Guan |
| USGS Requirements | ||||
| NT-22-04 | Automated Detection and Classification of Wildlife Targets in Digital Aerial Imagery – Phase II | Information Management | USGS | White |