Next Round of Research to Operations Initiative: NGGPS and HFIP

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This program announcement is for projects to be conducted for a two-year period with an anticipated start date of September 1, 2016 unless otherwise directed. Eligible applicants are institutions of higher education and federally funded educational institutions such as the Naval Postgraduate School. The purpose of the NOAA Research to Operations (R2O) Initiative is to expand and accelerate critical weather forecasting research to operations to address growing service demands and increase the accuracy of weather forecasts. This will be achieved through: (1) accelerated development and implementation of improved global weather prediction models, and inclusion of the coupling of atmosphere, ocean, wave, land surface and ice system components; (2) improved data assimilation techniques; (3) nested regional prediction capabilities; (4) improved hurricane and tropical cyclone modeling techniques; (5) improved ensemble techniques; (6) post-processing forecast tools and techniques; and (7) improved software architecture and system engineering. The NOAA R2O Initiative is soliciting proposals for projects involving applied science, modeling and/or data assimilation that support development of the Next Generation Global Prediction System (NGGPS) at global and regional scales. The NOAA R2O Initiative is also soliciting proposals for the Hurricane Forecast Improvement Project (HFIP) initiative to engage and coordinate hurricane research required to improve operational hurricane forecasts to meet societal requirements to effectively mitigate economic disruption. This notice provides guidelines for submission of proposals. This notice also describes opportunities and application procedures to demonstrate capabilities that have the potential to be incorporated into operational NWS numerical weather prediction (NWP) analyses and forecasts. The R2O initiative addresses NOAA's Weather Ready Nation (WRN) strategic goal and supporting objectives. The Program also represents an NOAA/NWS effort to foster a cost-effective transition from basic and applied research to operations and services through collaborative research and developmental testing between institutions which have expertise in the environmental sciences and operational forecast scientists. These activities will engage researchers in applied research of interest with the operational meteorological community and will improve the accuracy of forecasts and warnings of environmental hazards by applying scientific knowledge and information to operational products and services.

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