With core funding from The David and Lucile Packard Foundation and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the Partnership for Interdisciplinary Studies of Coastal Oceans (PISCO) is a research consortium involving several dozen marine scientists from four universities along the U.S. West Coast. The overall scientific program is directed by the eight principal investigators.

Additional research, technical, and support functions are carried out by the science and policy coordinators, postdoctoral researchers, information and program managers, graduate students, research technicians, and project assistants.