NOAA’s National Weather Service Office of the Chief Learning Officer is soliciting proposals for Education, Training, and Capacity Development (ETCD) for Weather, Water, and Climate Forecasting. The ETCD program’s goal is to improve performance of all operational meteorologists and hydrologists worldwide. Improving human performance for enhanced decision support services is done through collaborative training and education. ETCD is accomplished through collaboration between operational hydrologists/meteorologists, scientists, and academic staff with expertise across a wide range of environmental, educational, and social and behavioral sciences. These activities engage operational hydrologists, meteorologists, researchers, instructors, and students in applied training and simulation exercises which are pivotal to the operational climate, water, and weather communities. The goal of improving performance is achieved through a competency-based education and training program. By meeting the goal of ETCD, forecasts and warnings of environmental hazards will be improved.
Deadline: May 3, 2021
Eligible applicants must be academic institutions of higher learning which offer doctoral degrees in atmospheric sciences, or consortia of academic institutions of higher learning which offer doctoral degrees in atmospheric sciences. This restriction is needed because the results of the collaboration are to be incorporated into training and educational processes which ensure academic multidisciplinary peer review.
A university consortia should select one PI for the proposal. Collaboration between the academic community and the government within the project is highly encouraged. In addition, collaboration with PIs at different universities or university consortia is permitted. The PI must have experience as a university professor or those with comparable qualifications with substantial documented involvement in the proposal.
Proposals should clearly state the role of the PI in the project. Except for researchers who are associate, assistant, or full professors at the Naval Postgraduate School, federal government employees are not allowed to be listed as PIs or receive funding.
NOAA anticipates up to $8,000,000.00 per year will be made available annually for this award. The actual annual funding that the awardee receives may be less than the anticipated amount and will depend on the actual projects that are approved by NOAA after the main award begins, the availability of funding, the quality of the deliverables, the satisfactory progress in achieving the stated goals described in project proposals, and continued relevance to program objectives.
