Joint NSF/NOAA Agreement regarding the National Centers for Environmental Prediction and related AGS
This letter announces opportunities in FY2014 and FY2015 to support the translation of research supported by the Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences (AGS) to operations at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP). AGS will provide support to enable the AGS research community to transition the basic research in which they are engaged to use in national operational activities at NCEP. This opportunity would support extended visits by AGS-supported investigators and research groups, including students and post-doctoral researchers to NOAA's NCEP. Support would be awarded in the form of a supplement to an existing NSF award. This opportunity provides AGS PIs an opportunity to advance their NSF-supported research by working closely with environmental scientists at NOAA's NCEP and having access to a wealth of real-time and archived datasets and computational facilities.
NSF's mission speaks to addressing societal needs; thus, the Foundation looks for ways to enhance NSF awards by linking the results of fundamental research to national policy areas in which science and engineering can play a significant role. While the primary focus of NSF-supported research is the generation of new knowledge, NSF programs, where appropriate, consider approaches to optimize the use of research to address national needs. NSF creates strategic collaborations with other agencies, academia, and the private sector to enable the translation of fundamental research to usable contexts as rapidly as possible. The Foundation regularly matches investigators with potential users of the outcomes of research through programs, workshops, and other means.
Consistent with NSF's strategic goal to "innovate for society", AGS fosters activities that bridge the gap between basic research in the atmospheric and geospace sciences and critical national-level applied science objectives related to the diagnosis, analysis, and prediction of the atmosphere and geospace environment. To further advance both the science supported by the Division, and the Division's inter-agency collaborations and linkages, AGS seeks to support members of its research community who seek to work collaboratively with NOAA scientists at NCEP.
AGS-funded investigators interested in support to conduct their research at one of NOAA's national centers are urged to contact both their cognizant program director to discuss their intent and relevant NOAA staff to discuss their proposed work. Requests for supplemental support must be accompanied by a letter of intent to collaborate from the NOAA staff member. The accompanying letter of intent must specify the expectations for collaboration and access to facilities and data to be provided by NCEP. The PI's supplement request must address how the proposed extended visit supports, advances, or enhances the intellectual merit or broader impacts of their existing AGS-supported research award and differs from any on-going or recent collaborations with NOAA.