Climate variability and change present society with significant economic, health, safety, and security challenges. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has a vision, mission and a set of strategic goals to build a Climate Ready-Nation. The Climate Program Office (CPO) supports this vision as part of the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR). A CPO core function is to support extramural research through a competitive grants process. CPO’s programs span foundational, cross-disciplinary climate sciences, assessments, capacity building, tool development, and education. CPO collaborates closely with partners within NOAA and with the broader academic, Federal, Tribal nations, international bodies, and private sector community. CPO works in close partnership with the OAR laboratories and programs to complement and support its in-house research. CPO also works with other parts of NOAA to support its mission areas in weather, oceans, fisheries, and service delivery. CPO further builds networks, coalitions, and collaborations, converges around the best ideas, and provides support to accelerate emerging innovation across the climate enterprise. Undertaking a range of climate science and services initiatives, CPO helps our Nation and the world address climate-related challenges and pursue solution-focused opportunities. CPO’s definition of climate services is comprehensive, encompassing not only the development and dissemination of actionable climate science to inform decision making, but also the partnerships to engage in and understand the social and policy contexts within which climate-relevant decisions are made.
Through this announcement, CPO is seeking applications for six individual competitions in FY24. CPO plays a critical role in advancing science and informing decisions for climate adaptation, resilience, and mitigation as part of NOAA and the U.S. Global Change Research Program. CPO research/science programs and activities meet urgent climate challenges, and incubate innovative advancements in Earth system and social sciences; support world-class assessment reports, including the National Climate Assessment; enhance and expand NOAA’s capabilities for integrated information systems for drought, heat and floods to deliver timely science-based information that can reduce the impacts and costs of these climate-driven challenges; educate and grow the next generation of experts in support of NOAA’s climate mission. Through these new investments, CPO expands previous efforts focused on climate risks to address a suite of urgent climate-driven societal challenges faced by our Nation — including water availability and quality, marine and freshwater ecosystems, coastal changes and inundation, drought and extreme heat and related cascading hazards like wildfire, and air quality, and climate mitigation (more information about CPO Societal Challenges and Risks framework can be found here: https://www.cpo.noaa.gov/Initiatives/Climate-Risk-Areas-Initiative).
Deadlines:
- Letters of intent (LOIs) for all competitions should be received by email by 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Sep. 11, 2023.
- Full applications for all competitions must be received by 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time, Nov. 17, 2023.
The six competitions covered by this announcement are as follows:
A. Atmospheric Chemistry, Carbon Cycle, and Climate (AC4) Program
- Understanding urban air in a changing climate.
B. Climate Variability and Predictability (CVP) Program
- Advancing understanding of ocean variability and change in support of NOAA’s Climate Ecosystems Fisheries Initiative
- Advancing understanding of multi-year to decadal climate variability and predictability for US climate prediction
C. Modeling, Analysis, Predictions, and Projections (MAPP) Program
- Advancing an integrated NOAA capability for climate predictions and projections in support of NOAA's Climate Ecosystems Fisheries Initiative
- Process-Oriented Diagnostics for NOAA Climate Model Improvement and Applications
- Early career award for exceptional research in Earth System Model Development and Application
Eligible applicants are institutions of higher education, other nonprofits, commercial organizations, international organizations, and state, local and federally recognized tribal governments.
In FY24, approximately $9 million will be available for approximately 90 new awards pending budget appropriations (see section I.B above). It is anticipated that most awards will be at a funding level between $50,000 and $300,000 per year with exceptions for larger awards, unless otherwise noted below. Federal funding for FY 2025 may be used to fund awards submitted under this Notice of Funding Opportunity. Current or previous grantees are eligible to apply for a new award that builds on, but does not replicate, activities covered in existing or previous awards. Current grantees should not apply for supplementary funding through this announcement.