The NOAA Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) is offering this grant to establish a Cooperative Institute for Earth System Research and Data Science.

The NOAA Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) invites applications for the establishment of a Cooperative Institute (CI) to assist NOAA in fulfilling NOAA’s Next Generation Strategic Plan vision of “Healthy ecosystems, communities, and economies that are resilient in the face of change.” The CI’s research will leverage its expertise in climate processing and modeling, atmospheric processes, geophysics, advanced information systems, earth system modeling, and space weather to expand our understanding of the entire earth system. The proposed CI supports NOAA mission science by developing and applying satellite systems, ships, buoys, aircraft, research facilities, high-performance computing, and information management and distribution systems. In addition, the proposed CI will partner with NOAA in the pursuit of innovative research-to-application capabilities that recognize and apply significant new understanding.

The proposed CI research themes are (1) Future Atmosphere; (2) Climate Science and Prediction; (3) Earth System Data Science, Stewardship, and Application; (4) Regional Science and Applications; (5) Scientific Outreach, Education and Diversity; (6) Space Weather Science and Prediction; (7) Weather Research and Forecasting; and (8) Ecosystem Science and Prediction.

The research described herein was carefully defined to complement, rather than duplicate research at other CIs.

The CI may consist of one or more (e.g., a consortium) academic or non-profit, degree-granting institutions that possess an outstanding research program in one or more areas related to NOAA’s mission. In the case of a consortium applicant, NOAA will issue only one award to the lead academic institution that applied for the award and where the CI will be established and resident. The CI is strongly encouraged to work in conjunction with a range of supporting research affiliates, including, but not limited to other governmental agencies; private industry; non-traditional partners; Minority Serving Institutions (MSI); NOAA laboratories, science and data centers; other CIs; Cooperative Science Centers (CSCs); and Sea Grant Colleges.