Modular Ocean Research Infrastructure (MORI)

The Modular Ocean Research Infrastructure (MORI) project is an alternative pathway for support of sophisticated, vessel-based ocean research that would potentially be more flexible, economical, scalable and delivered faster than construction or purchase of a new fleet of specialized research vessels.

MORI is designed for mobility and flexible deployment on diverse vessel types. This allows specialized research infrastructure to be used on vessels across Canada, and even internationally, without requiring costly and time-consuming repositioning of the vessels themselves. In a significant advance from existing use of containerized systems (e.g. container labs, which are widely used throughout ocean science), MORI modules work as an interoperable system including all data transfer, services, communications and logistics and provide all the research support functions typically provided by the research vessel itself. Because of this, MORI is capable of transforming a range of vessels into fully operational instruments of large-scale oceanography.

MORI’s Initial Development and Demonstration (IDD) phase received financial support from Irving Shipbuilding and MEOPAR.

The project also had support from COVE Ocean – Centre for Ocean Ventures & Entrepreneurship, National Research Council, Natural Resources Canada, CERC.Ocean Laboratory, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Defence Research and Development Canada, Hawboldt Industries and numerous people and organizations who provided time, advice and loaned equipment.