The U.S. National Science Foundation has funded the first year of a new $53.8 million, four-year cooperative agreement with the University of Alaska Fairbanks to continue operating the research vessel Sikuliaq through the end of calendar year 2028.

The global-class ice-capable research vessel, which is owned by NSF, has been operated by the UAF College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences since it was constructed  in 2014. UAF management of the ship covers staffing, cruise scheduling, procurement of supplies and fuel, and operating the Seward Marine Center, where the vessel is homeported. Its operations support 39 permanent full-time employees and 25-30 temporary crew members.

Following a rigorous review process, NSF renewed the cooperative agreement directly with UAF rather than competing the ship nationally with other potential operators. The new agreement took effect in early 2025.

The Sikuliaq is a 261-foot vessel designed to operate in harsh conditions to advance polar and subpolar scientific research. The ship, which can break through ice up to 2.5 feet thick, is the only ice-capable vessel in the U.S. Academic Research Fleet.

As a global-class vessel, the Sikuliaq can operate in any of the world’s oceans. In 2025, it will host research projects ranging from Micronesia in the South Pacific Ocean to the Arctic Ocean north of Alaska.

Those capabilities have attracted a diverse array of research projects during the past decade. Users and research partners have included more than 100 academic institutions, federal agencies and Alaska Native organizations. Notably, UAF faculty, staff and students have participated in about half of the ship’s science days at sea over the past decade.

In recent years, the vessel has been an essential part of a long-term oceanographic monitoring program in the Gulf of Alaska, hosted a project that revealed mysteries about the Bering Land Bridge and supported research in waters offshore of Hawaii while local vessels were busy or undergoing repairs.

UAF has also strived to ensure that research activities aboard the ship do not interfere with Alaska Native communities and subsistence hunters. The Sikuliaq is the first and only vessel in the academic research fleet with procedures outlining when and how scientists are expected to work together with Alaska coastal communities.

“We are grateful to be entrusted by NSF to continue as operator of this important research facility that meets national science needs,” said Bradley Moran, dean of the UAF College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences.

  extenson, nsf, sikuliaq, uaf