FY 2017 Climate Program Office

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FFO description: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is focused on providing the essential and highest quality environmental information vital to our Nation’s safety, prosperity and resilience. Toward this goal, the agency conducts and supports weather and climate research, oceanic and atmospheric observations, modeling, information management, assessments, interdisciplinary decision-support research, outreach, education, and partnership development. Climate variability and change present society with significant economic, health, safety, and security challenges and opportunities. In meeting these challenges, and as part of NOAA’s climate portfolio within the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR), the Climate Program Office (CPO) advances scientific understanding, monitoring, and prediction of climate and its impacts, to enable effective decisions. These investments are key to NOAA’s mission of "Science, Service, and Stewardship" and are guided by the agency’s vision to create and sustain enhanced resilience in ecosystems, communities, and economies.Within this context, CPO manages competitive research programs through which NOAA funds high-priority climate science, assessments, decision support research, outreach, education, and capacity-building activities designed to advance our understanding of the Earth’s climate system, and to foster the application and use of this knowledge to improve the resilience of our Nation and its partners. CPO supports research that is conducted across the United States and internationally. CPO also provides strategic guidance for the agency’s climate science and services programs and supports NOAA’s contributions to the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) and its National Climate Assessment, and similar international endeavors such as the Global Framework for Climate Services. CPO’s climate research portfolio is designed to achieve a fully integrated research and applications program. We meet this objective through a focus on climate intelligence and climate resilience, in support of NOAA’s goals. Climate intelligence defines CPO’s technical strength through its foundational capabilities, which include (1) Observations and monitoring, (2) Research to advance scientific understanding, (3) Modeling and prediction, (4) Communication, education, and engagement, and, (5) Climate and societal interactions. A focus on climate resilience leverages CPO’s climate intelligence to advance capabilities for responding to the urgent and growing demand for reliable, trusted, transparent, and timely climate information needed to sustain all sectors of our economy and environment. CPO’s strategy addresses challenges in the areas of, (1) Weather and climate extremes, (2) Climate impacts on water resources, (3) Coasts and climate resilience, (4) Sustainability of marine ecosystems, and (5) Changing atmospheric composition and its impacts. Making progress in addressing climate-related societal challenges and realizing benefits for NOAA’s public and private partners, requires that these mission-focused capabilities be integrated across CPO to align research, applications, transitions, and operations, and to meet the information needs of a resilient society. NOAA envisions a Nation that is prepared for, thriving, and resilient to climate variability and change. CPO’s activities support a unique and highly flexible climate research enterprise to improve scientific understanding of climate variability and change and to enable businesses and communities to derive the benefits of this investment in the present and into the future. Effectively coordinating across these components through the development and deployment of end-to-end research-based integrated information systems that address needs of high societal relevance, have been hallmarks of CPO’s success in linking environmental intelligence to resilience. Key components in this enterprise are Annual Federal Funding Opportunities, competitive grants programs and other types of support that advance and extend NOAA’s foundational capabilities and applications research. Proficiency in these core areas ensures that CPO’s infrastructure is always in place to meet the intelligence and resilience challenges of our changing climate. NOAA, OAR, and the Climate Program Office encourage applicants and awardees to support the principles of diversity and inclusion when writing their proposals and performing their work. Diversity is defined as a collection of individual attributes that together help organizations achieve objectives. Inclusion is defined as a culture that connects each employee to the organization. By promoting diversity and inclusion you can improve creativity, productivity, and the vitality of the research community.

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