American Institute of Physics. Center for History of Physics. Study of Multi-Institutional Collaborations. Phase II: Space Science and Geophysics.

The Ocean Drilling Program, and its predecessor the Deep Sea Drilling Project, retrieve cores from the ocean floor using a dedicated research vessel that took advantage of the design, navigation features, and safety equipment that enabled oil companies to explore for off-shore oil. By drilling in ways that minimally disturb the cores, the project provides participating scientists with data relevant to earth history and tectonic structure. National Science Foundation contracted with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography of the University of California, San Diego to manage DSDP from its inception in 1968. Scripps followed the scientific advice of the Joint Institutes for Deep Earth Sampling (JOIDES), which initially consisted of Scripps, the Lamont Doherty Oceanographic Institution of Columbia University, the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences of the University of Miami, and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The Ocean Drilling Program, initiated in 1985, is managed scientifically by the JOIDES, whose membership has expanded to ten American institutions, four nations and two international consortia of nations. It is managed fiscally by the Joint Oceanographic Institutes, Incorporated (JOI), which contracts to the Texas A&M Research Foundation for the maintenance and operation of the ship. The DSDP/ODP has been international in scope since 1975.