The Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) is an open community resource supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) (Smith et al., 2018, this issue). Free access is provided to all OOI data through online interfaces (Vardaro and McDonnell, 2018, in this issue). Independent of an NSF-funded project, individual scientists can use OOI data to address specific scientific hypotheses, or to augment existing research projects. For example, publicly accessible OOI data can provide key resources for model simulations, as well as data to augment shipboard research or field research projects. Scientists conducting research in the regional domains of the OOI are encouraged to consider these opportunities and reach out to OOI staff to discuss how their research may be included in OOI cruise opportunities.

Ulses, G.A., L.M. Smith, and T.J. Cowles. 2018. Get engaged with the Ocean Observatories Initiative. Oceanography 31(1):136–137, https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2018.121.

McDonnell, J., A. deCharon, C.S. Lichtenwalner, K. Hunter-Thomson, C. Halversen, O. Schofield, S. Glenn, C. Ferraro, C. Lauter, and J. Hewlett. 2018. Education and public engagement in OOI: Lessons learned from the field. Oceanography 31(1):138–146, https://doi.org/​10.5670/oceanog.2018.122.

Smith, L.M., J.A. Barth, D.S. Kelley, A. Plueddemann, I. Rodero, G.A. Ulses, M.F. Vardaro, and R. Weller. 2018. The Ocean Observatories Initiative. Oceanography 31(1):16–35, https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2018.105.

Vardaro, M.F., and J. McDonnell. 2018. Accessing OOI data. Oceanography 31(1):36–37, https://doi.org/​10.5670/oceanog.2018.106.

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