NARRAGANSETT –– The University of Rhode Island’s School of Oceanography will soon be overseeing the movements of the nation’s 22 academic research vessels under a new $5-million grant from the federal government.

In announcing the five-year, $1-million-a-year grant, Dennis Nixon, a URI professor of marine affairs, said that basing the University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS) at the School of Oceanography will put the school “at the hub of oceanographic operations for the whole country.”

UNOLS is a consortium of 61 schools and laboratories throughout the nation that engage in oceanographic research.

The grant to manage the consortium’s fleet of 22 research vessels is typically transferred between its East Coast and West Coast members every 9 to 10 years in a competitive process. URI first won the grant to manage the fleet in 1991. Management was transferred to Moss Landing Marine Labs, part of the California State University system, in 2000.

Nixon said that as manager of the fleet, URI will track the location of all the vessels regardless of where they are in the world. One of its main functions, according to Annette DeSilva, assistant executive secretary for UNOL, will be to make sure that federally funded scientists have access to missions tailored to their specialties.

“We’re sort of like a dating service,” DeSilva said. “We match scientists with the ship that has the right facilities and that is going to the right part of the world at the right time of year.”

Nixon said he already receives, as risk manager and legal adviser, several calls a week for guidance on some of the insurance issues and legal problems associated with ship operations.

“Three years ago one of the UNOLS ships was attacked by pirates and the crew barely managed to escape machine-gun fire and rocket-propelled grenades,” he said.

“Climate change is another big issue for us. The melting Arctic ice has expanded interests in oil and gas exploration, raising questions about the international law of the sea and who has the rights to be in certain waters.”

Funding for the grant is provided by six government agencies — the National Science Foundation, the Office of Naval Research, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Minerals Management Service, the U.S. Geological Survey and the Coast Guard.

The fleet ranges in size from the 66-foot Clifford A. Barnes, based at the University of Washington, to the 279-foot Melville, based at the University of California in San Diego. URI’s 184-foot Endeavor is based at the Narragansett Bay campus.

rdujardi@projo.com