2026 NOPP mCDR PI Meeting

On May 7th and 8th, 2026, the Principal Investigators (PIs) of the NOPP marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR) projects gathered for a hybrid meeting taking place at the NOAA Weather and Climate Prediction building in College Park, MD and virtually. Coordinated by the NOAA Ocean Acidification Program (OAP), the two-day meeting brought together mCDR researchers in industry, academia, and government to discuss their projects and priorities for this developing field. 

The region shown includes some of the Shantar Islands and part of Uda Bay in the western Sea of Okhotsk. This scene was collected by Landsat 8 on September 24, 2021. Credit: NASA (Photo website link) 

2026 NOPP mCDR PI Meeting website: https://oceanacidification.noaa.gov/2026-nopp-mcdr-pi-meeting/ 

Overall meeting goals: 

  • Foster collaborations between NOPP mCDR research partners 
  • Share research findings, challenges, and next steps across project teams 
  • Discuss the future of mCDR research including gaps, challenges, and research priorities 

The meeting agenda was organized around the following three sessions: 

  • Session One: Building Foundational Understanding of mCDR
    • Early-stage foundational research, including technology development, lab experiments, and modeling to explore feasibility. 
  • Session Two: Integration and Engagement
    • Systems-level analyses, including modeling of integrated ocean processes and socio-ecological dimensions. 
  • Session Three: Lessons from the Field
    • Findings from experimental manipulations and monitoring in real environmental conditions. 

The NOPP mCDR projects were awarded in 2023 as a result of the 2022 NOFO process, which the NOAA OAP also led. The $24.3M of funding awarded aimed at bringing together academic researchers, federal scientists and industry to advance research in mCDR. The supported research expands understanding of various aspects of mCDR approaches, risks and co-benefits including ocean acidification mitigation, and science needed to build regulatory frameworks for testing and scaling of mCDR.

This funding opportunity is the first large-scale public and multi-partner investment of research specifically focused on a suite of mCDR approaches. Knowledge from the research will assist in assessing the potential of mCDR as a climate mitigation solution. These awards support 17 projects with partners from 47 institutions. 

The NOPP Office attended the May 2026 meeting and contributed to notetaking for the NOAA OAP summary report, which will be released in the coming months.