An ''open'' workshop entitled United States/Russia Ocean Technology '9
6 (OT '96) will be held in Moscow on April 15-18, 1996. A cooperative
workshop is long overdue and presents a good opportunity to provide th
e foundation needed for long-term cooperation in a vital sphere of glo
bal interest. Workshop plaits, initiated in 1991 through National Scie
nce Foundation (NSF) and NOAA collaboration, ultimately were funded in
1994 through a NSF proposal grant. Major topics to be covered are env
ironmental ? emote sensing, hydroacoustic systems and application meth
ods, oceanographic instrumentation, and underwater vehicles and system
s. The objective of OT '96 is to identify and develop areas of mutual
benefit for cooperative projects in research and development with an e
mphasis on government/academic/industry partnerships. Russia has been
very active and made great strides in marine, maritime, and naval tech
nology during the preceding decades as part of the Soviet Union. While
participants for the workshop have been selected primarily based on t
echnology topics and related experience, others interested in potentia
l joint ventures are encouraged to attend as observers. Workshop topic
s for review and discussion and some existing linkages and new proposa
ls are briefly mentioned herein. A report on the findings of OT '96, w
ith emphasis on identified productive areas for cooperation and recomm
endations for follow-on activities, will be disseminated in fall 1996.