PKG00262981-instructions.pdf

FY2021 Weather Program Office Research Programs

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. Funding Opportunity Description 4

A. Program Objective 4 B. Program Priorities 8 C. Program Authority 14

II. Award Information 14 A. Funding Availability 14 B. Project/Award Period 15 C. Type of Funding Instrument 16

III. Eligibility Information 16 A. Eligible Applicants 16 B. Cost Sharing or Matching Requirement 17 C. Other Criteria that Affect Eligibility 17

IV. Application and Submission Information 17 A. Address to Request Application Package 17 B. Content and Form of Application 18 C. Unique Entity Identifier and System for Award Management (SAM) 27 D. Submission Dates and Times 28 E. Intergovernmental Review 28 F. Funding Restrictions 28 G. Other Submission Requirements 30

V. Application Review Information 31 A. Evaluation Criteria 31 B. Review and Selection Process 35 C. Selection Factors 36 D. Anticipated Announcement and Award Dates 36

VI. Award Administration Information 37 A. Award Notices 37 B. Administrative and National Policy Requirements 37 C. Reporting 40

VII. Agency Contacts 41 VIII. Other Information 42

Notice of Federal Funding Page 1 of 43

NOTICE OF FUNDING OPPORTUNITY

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Federal Agency Name(s): Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Department of Commerce

Funding Opportunity Title: FY2021 Weather Program Office Research Programs

Announcement Type: Initial

Funding Opportunity Number: NOAA-OAR-WPO-2021-2006592

Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Number: 11.459, Weather and Air Quality Research

Dates: For each of the three competitions within this Fiscal Year 2021 funding opportunity, full applications must be received by 5:00 pm Eastern Time (ET) on November 18, 2020.

Applications received after this deadline will not be considered. Pre-proposal Letters of Intent (LOIs) are strongly encouraged for potential applicants to all competitions and must be received by 5:00 pm ET on September 22, 2020, in order to receive a pre-proposal review. Award decisions are expected in April 2021. Grants for all competitions will be up to two years in length and are recommended to begin August 1, 2021, as described in Section II.B “Project/Award Period”.

Funding Opportunity Description: NOAA’s Weather Program Office (WPO; formerly OWAQ, the Office of Weather and Air Quality) is soliciting proposals for weather, air quality, and earth-system modeling and observations research reflecting multiple science objectives spanning time scales from hours to seasons, and from weather and water observations and earth system modeling to social, and behavioral, and economic science. There will be three grant competitions from this notification valued at approximately $7,750,000 as follows: 1) Joint Technology Transfer Initiative (JTTI), 2) Observations, and 3) Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (SBES).

In alignment with the Weather Forecasting and Innovation Act of 2017 (Public Law 115-25), the funded projects should improve the weather community’s understanding and ultimately its services of weather and water forecasting through engagement with the external scientific community on key science gaps of mutual interest. Through this funding opportunity, NOAA will support new weather, water, climate, earth system, and air quality observing and forecasting applications, including improved analysis techniques, better statistical or dynamic forecast models and techniques, and communication of that information to better inform the public.

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To achieve success with these objectives, selected projects should focus on advancing science and technology from the research stage to transitionable outputs or prototype products that NOAA or external partners could further develop into practical applications and operations.

For the purposes of NOAA-funded projects, the maturity of projects is broadly classified using Readiness Levels (RLs), as adopted by NOAA and other federal agencies. The numerical RL scale from 1 to 9 is designed to track project maturity across the progressive spectrum from research to development to demonstration to deployment. RLs are defined in the context of NOAA’s overall process for transitioning funded research into operations, commercialization, or other applications in NOAA’s Policy on Research and Development Transitions described in NOAA Administrative Order 216-105B and in Section VIII. Additional information can be found in the Procedural Handbook for NOAA’s Policy on Research & Development Transitions at https://www.noaa.gov/organization/administration/nao-216-105b-policy-on-research-and-development-transitions.

Depending on the program objectives, the individual competitions within this notice of funding opportunity may favor projects at specific stages of maturity as signified by their estimated current RL. Program-specific project maturity considerations for funding are included in Section I.A “Program Objective.” While all programs in this funding opportunity encourage an acceleration of research toward operationalization and/or other application, no program directly supports an actual research-to-NOAA operations transition (i.e., the RL 8-to-9 transition) itself; the funded projects are, however, expected to work with NOAA operational center representatives to develop strategies if future transitions to NOAA are anticipated.

NOAA, OAR, and WPO 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.

Promoting diversity and inclusion improves creativity, productivity, and the vitality of the weather and water research community in which WPO engages.

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FULL ANNOUNCEMENT TEXT

I. Funding Opportunity Description

A. Program Objective

1. JTTI

The U.S. faces a spectrum of high impact environmental hazards that cause havoc on people’s lives and the nation’s economy. Through improved forecasting of the events, better communication and preparedness, loss of lives and property damage can be reduced. While NOAA is the sole U.S. government authority for issuing official weather forecasts and warnings for life threatening events, the broader weather enterprise plays an important role in communication and dissemination of weather information tailored to specific customers.

Through this JTTI announcement, WPO/OAR/NOAA is seeking proposals to support further development, testing and evaluation of mature weather research that has potential for improving NOAA’s NWS operational capabilities, with particular emphasis on (i) In collaboration with the Unified Forecast System (UFS) community, further develop, test and enhance data assimilation techniques, develop and evaluate physics, improve model component coupling techniques and capabilities, and utilizing Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML) for improving forecasts, (ii) Further development and enhancement of physics suite tuning and evaluations, post-processing techniques and tools, and (iii) Improve forecasts and messaging of extreme weather and high impact weather events (e.g., severe convection, winter storms, extreme rainfall). Applicants are encouraged to visit the UFS website (https://www.ufscommunity.org/) and the NWS website (http://www.weather.gov/) to learn more about the NWS current capabilities, as well as the NOSC website (https://nosc.noaa.gov/), the DTC website (http://www.dtcenter.org/testing-evaluation/data-assimilation), and future plans (https://www.weather.gov/news/192203-strategic-plan).

In order to successfully transition new technology to NOAA operations shortly after the completion of selected projects, the JTTI program will focus on projects associated with Readiness Levels 4 to 8. As such, projects that are best suited to submit to JTTI are at a stage where the concept has already been proven to work successfully in the local environment and has potential for further prototype development and testing in a pseudo-operational environment. The potential investigators are highly encouraged to contact one of the NOAA testbed managers if they plan to test their products in a NOAA testbed, website (https://www.testbeds.noaa.gov/). In order for NOAA to successfully transition the new technologies developed as a result of this funding opportunity into NOAA operations, Notice of Federal Funding Page 4 of 43 applicants must identify a NOAA/NWS operational office (receiving party) that will be responsible for testing and evaluation for feasibility to implement the research into operations. Ultimately, the implementation decision lies with the NWS. Applicants are highly encouraged to collaborate (and demonstrate collaboration using the NOAA Collaborator Acknowledgment described in Section IV.B.2.h) with the NOAA/NWS scientists throughout the project (see Section V.A.1.(6) and (7)).

For additional program information on JTTI and this competition, please review the supplemental Information Sheet for the JTTI competition in the grant package associated with this announcement at https://www.grants.gov.

2. Observations

The aim of this competition is to develop and demonstrate innovative sensor and observing technologies that have high potential for advancing an observation systems portfolio that is mission-effective, integrated, adaptable, and affordable.

Surface-based and boundary layer observations serve as critical inputs for the analysis and forecasts of the operational weather and water enterprise for the protection of life and property and enhancement of the national economy. Given that the relative absence of high-resolution surface and planetary boundary layer observations impedes progress in skillful predictions of high-impact and disruptive weather, proposals should focus on technologies with the potential to improve the accuracy, reliability, spatial coverage, cost effectiveness, deployability, safety, and sustainability of observations for eventual use by the operational weather and water enterprise including NOAA, the National Mesonet Program, the private sector, and other government sectors.

The scope includes weather and water related observations from the surface through the planetary boundary layer including in-situ surface, profiling, balloon-borne, radar, and airborne and/or unmanned systems (UxS) based technologies. Satellite-based sensors are not included in this scope except to calibrate, validate, or integrate with in-situ observations as a secondary objective.

Realizing that boundary layer and surface-based observations are unevenly distributed in space, time and purpose, proposals of particular interest should leverage in-situ surface, profiling, balloon-borne, radar, airborne, and/or UxS based observing technologies for use in sensing adverse weather phenomena beyond just severe thunderstorms and tornadoes, such as extreme precipitation, extreme temperatures, winter storms, flash floods, tropical

Notice of Federal Funding Page 5 of 43 cyclones, and fire weather, and that are cost-effective, widely available, and/or affordably available for purchase, independent of investment beyond the grant award period.

The strongest proposals should:

-include substantial collaboration with one or more operational weather stakeholders with the potential to benefit from the work and deliver sample data to the stakeholders for evaluation during the practical portion of the award period -clearly document linkage to operational weather needs and demonstrate or allocate effort to understand how new observations may be used in the operational weather enterprise and tailor aspects of the observation collection and instrument design accordingly -demonstrate potential to transition to operations, applications, or commercialization sometime after the award period.

Opportunities for collaboration with operational stakeholders: As stated above, strong proposals should have substantial collaboration with one or more operational stakeholders.

One source of collaboration is with the NOAA/National Weather Service that has 122 Weather Forecast Offices around the country as well as National Centers, National Water Center, River Forecast Centers, and Center Weather Service Units (https://www.nws.noaa.gov/organization.php ). Proposers are encouraged to report their planned interactions with NWS offices to Jordan Gerth, Jordan.Gerth@noaa.gov, at the National Weather Service Office of Observations. Other collaborative opportunities include work toward developing innovative observations to improve airborne surveillance and numerical weather models. Observations that will improve the predictive skill of the Unified Forecast System are encouraged (see ufscommunity.org). Other examples of potential collaboration with operational stakeholders include the National Mesonet Program (https://nationalmesonet.us/nmp-partners/) and State Climatologist Programs (https://stateclimate.org/). Engagement with, and participation by the operational weather commercial sector is also encouraged.

Projects appropriate for this competition range from Readiness Level (RL) 5 to RL 7 and have potential to transition to operations, application, or commercialization at either NOAA or the weather and water enterprise within the next 3 to 6 years.

3. SBES

Recent societal impacts from hurricanes, floods, snow storms, and wildfires demonstrate that although there have been considerable advances in weather prediction and forecasting, there is a need to understand the intersection of people and meteorology. A variety of social, Notice of Federal Funding Page 6 of 43 behavioral, and environmental factors “affect how we prepare for, observe, predict, respond to, and are impacted by weather hazards” (NASEM, 2018. doi:10.17226/24865). Thus, social, behavioral, and economic science (SBES) research plays a critical role in connecting NOAA's weather forecast information and improvements to the public’s growing forecast needs. The Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017 further recognizes the importance of SBES integration within the larger weather enterprise by emphasizing the need to improve our understanding of how people (e.g., NWS stakeholders/core partners, forecasters, the public(s) receive, interpret, and respond to warnings and forecasts of weather events that endanger life and property, as well as how to best communicate weather events to various stakeholders.

The WPO Social Science Program (SSP) is dedicated to finding, funding, and fostering collaborative SBES weather research and helps translate findings into potential weather applications. Through this funding announcement, WPO SSP solicits SBES research proposals that benefit the overall weather community. The WPO SSP seeks to involve SBES researchers and social science led, interdisciplinary teams to integrate SBES into meteorological research, forecasting, information displays, and communication of uncertainty. These disciplines include (but are not limited to) anthropology, communication, economics, geography, political science, psychology, and sociology. This program also helps support the underlying SBES components of the Forecasting a Continuum of Environmental Threats (FACETs) framework by prioritizing the communication of uncertainty and probabilistic information. Specifically, this funding call supports interdisciplinary work, applied research, and more broadly, social science research that will advance theoretical findings into applications for the operational forecast community.

Projects appropriate for this competition range from Readiness Level (RL) 2 to RL 7 and have potential to transition to operations at either NOAA or the weather and water enterprise within the next 3 to 7 years. Social science projects aimed at theory and methodological development with respect to a particular application area would fall between RL2–3.

Projects advancing existing products or enhancing a well-established methodology would likely fall between RL4–7. NOAA Readiness Levels are defined in Section VIII.

NWS collaborations are strongly encouraged. While transition and implementation decisions lie with the NWS, collaborative efforts help convey the potential value of the project output, especially with NOAA/NWS. These applications could impact the people, processes, and products surrounding the 24/7 operational forecasting process. Applicants are highly encouraged to collaborate with NOAA/NWS throughout the project, especially for projects falling between RL4-7. If the collaborator(s) will contribute a significant amount of time to research and development, a NOAA Collaborator Acknowledgment Form is required

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(see Section IV.B.2.d.9).

All projects that involve the use of human test subjects must clearly state so in their application (see Section IV.B.2.d.2 and d.6). If the project includes using secondary data sources and/or analysis of previously collected data, please state so clearly in the proposal.

For additional program information on this competition, please review the supplemental Information Sheet for the SBES competition in the grant package associated with this announcement at https://www.grants.gov.

B. Program Priorities

1. JTTI

WPO, in collaboration with the NWS, developed the following three priorities (each with sub-priorities) for the JTTI Program.

JTTI-1: In collaboration with the UFS community (https://ufscommunity.org/) and/or the UFS/R2O Project (https://www.weather.gov/media/sti/UFS-R2O-Project-Proposal- Public.pdf), further develop, test and enhance data assimilation techniques, develop and evaluate physics, improve model component coupling techniques and capabilities, and utilize Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML) for improving forecasts:

JTTI-1(a): Test and improve methods for coupled data assimilation strategies for GFSv17/GEFSv13 or other applications within the UFS. This includes (i) developing and testing multi-scale hybrid EnVar (with Joint Effort for Data assimilation Integration (JEDI) if available) for UFS (particularly multi-scale covariance localization), (ii) developing and testing initialization and ensemble strategies for the Rapid Refresh Forecast System (RRFS) (e.g., multi-physics, stochastic physics etc.), (iii) initializing regional nested, coupled domains for the Hurricane Analysis and Forecast System (HAFS), or (iv) further develop and/or improve quality control and bias corrections (utilizing machine learning) for high frequency remote sensing observations (radar, satellite radiance, lightning etc.).

JTTI-1(b): Develop hierarchical testing approaches for land model evaluation and coupling in the context of the UFS. The land models of interest include but are not limited to the current land component in the UFS, but should be ready to run with the UFS by the end of the project. Projects on developing and implementing land-only reanalysis and reforecast datasets and metrics for evaluating the fidelity of UFS in capturing key land processes and land-atmospheric coupling, isolating and quantifying the impacts of the land component on

Notice of Federal Funding Page 8 of 43 coupled system particularly in terms of surface temperature and precipitation forecasts from weather to subseasonal timescales, and assimilating land-relevant observations to improve land initiate states, are strongly encouraged.

JTTI-1(c): Accelerate the use of AI in product generation in operations, particularly for better use of existing ensembles, and creation of auto-tuning and auto-calibration capabilities for machine learning techniques to reduce operations and maintenance costs.

JTTI-2: Work with the UFS community (https://ufscommunity.org) and/or the UFS R2O Project (https://www.weather.gov/media/sti/UFS-R2O-Project-Proposal-Public.pdf)to further development and enhancement of physics suite tuning and evaluations, post-processing techniques and tools, to include:

JTTI-2(a): Develop post-processing software for the UFS, including novel algorithms and methods for model bias correction and calibration such as machine learning and artificial intelligence, software optimization and compression techniques, visualization techniques, and probabilistic data sets and statistics derived from ensemble systems.

JTTI-2(b): Physics improvements for the UFS, including: (i) Improve and enhance existing Common Community Physics Package (CCPP) physics parameterizations including addressing known biases. This includes tuning of coefficients or physics parameters, adding new (or unaccounted) processes/forcing terms to existing packages. Test and evaluate these schemes at weather to subseasonal scales, or (ii) Work with the UFS community to develop a systematic evaluation of physics suites (not individual schemes) and tuning of physics configurations (optimization of physics configurations), with a focus on scale-aware physics.

For example, should we turn the cumulus scheme on or off for Convection-Allowing Models (CAM)? Or turn on shallow convection only?

JTTI-2(c): Develop novel verification metrics, methods, algorithms, and graphical displays for all UFS applications using METplus, METExpress, and METViewer using existing and emerging data sets to help diagnose systematic errors, test and improve new UFS applications, and provide real-time model performance characteristics.

JTTI-3: Improve forecasts and messaging of extreme weather and high impact weather events (e.g., severe convection, winter storms, extreme rainfall), to include:

JTTI-3(a): Further develop, test and evaluate tools and models that convey probabilistic hazard information to assist forecasters in diagnosing the magnitude and evolution of high impact and extreme weather events.

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JTTI-3(b): Further develop, test and evaluate new or improved ways of enhancing forecaster use of probabilistic information, including quantifying impacts, in short-range and medium-range weather forecasts.

JTTI-3(c): Utilize social and behavioral science during the development, testing, and evaluation of forecast tools that can be used to diagnose forecast uncertainty of high impact and extreme events. This includes projects focused on usability, human factors, and co-creation of software development.

2. Observations

WPO, in collaboration with the NWS and other NOAA stakeholders, developed the following nine priorities for the Observations Program.

Obs-1: Extreme temperatures. Extreme temperatures are a public health concern, particularly in urban and suburban areas. High density observations that quantify how extreme temperatures, combined with dew point and wind speed, impact outdoor activities are particularly sought (such as the conditions that children walking to school in the winter, or attending outdoor summertime events would experience) to improve how the public receives messages of apparent temperature and temperature-related hazards.

Obs-2: Aircraft and radiosonde data analysis. Analysis of aircraft data relative to radiosondes, both in time and space, could inform future NWS decisions about allocating resources for one or both observation types. The NWS seeks studies that explore the relative value of in-situ observations providing complementary or duplicative information, evaluating both where there is redundancy in the weather observation network and where there are unfilled gaps, or where there are new types of observations that provide cost-value benefit if adopted more broadly.

Obs-3: Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) data analysis. An analysis or observing system experiment of the quality, consistency, and value of temperature, moisture, and wind observations collected from UAS for assimilation into numerical weather prediction models could enhance NWS operations, investments, and modeling efforts. A proposal of this nature should consider the importance of atmospheric properties with increasing height because UAS would not provide information in the upper troposphere and stratosphere as a radiosonde does. The NWS is also interested if there are certain sites and scenarios where UAS observations are not possible or representative due to local weather conditions or flight

Notice of Federal Funding Page 10 of 43 restrictions, and an observational strategy for deciding whether collecting an UAS-based observation is safe.

Obs-4: UxS and expendables. UxS and expendables, including systems deployable from operational hurricane and weather surveillance aircraft, that have high potential for improving operational data such as wind speed and direction, temperature, air pressure, and moisture that forecasters and scientists need to better understand, model, and forecast rapidly intensifying storms.

Obs-5: UAS mapping. Georeferenced observations of floodwater extent from UAS platforms enable collection of data sets for validation of flood inundation mapping approaches. Technologies considered viable include optical imagery showing flooding extent, oblique imagery post-processed to estimate water surface elevation, post-event low-altitude high-resolution imagery showing debris lines. Also of interest is high altitude, high resolution Synthetic Aperture Radar data that offers the potential for near-real time assessment of flooded areas, and rapid estimation of water depth.

Obs-6: Gap filling radars. Small, self-contained radars that provide meteorological insights into deep convection and associated impacts where there is poor or nonexistent radar coverage in the United States, including territories, are of interest. For example, Weather Surveillance Radar (WSR-88D) and terminal doppler weather radar (TDWR) coverage of the U.S. varies. In addition, the United States territory of American Samoa does not have a weather radar despite frequent flash flooding. Proposals involving any radar technology of this nature must explain the anticipated, added benefit of the project for NWS operations and/or societal impact in addition to enhancing a technical or scientific understanding of the equipment or atmosphere, and arrange to deliver the data to NWS operations for use in near real-time at no additional cost to the Government during the grant award period in which it is deployed. Of interest are proposals that leverage a single new radar with low maintenance costs and high data quality, to complement other observations, including existing radar, in-situ, and satellite observations.

Obs-7: Snow observations. Affordable, automated surface-based observations, potentially supported by data analysis, interpretation, and/or processing algorithms, that can provide meteorologists and hydrologists with frequent (hourly or better) surface snowfall information, including new snow accumulation, snowfall rate, snow depth, and snow-water equivalent (SWE), consistent with reporting standards. Automated observations in remote areas that require only seasonal maintenance and do not require external power or communications, and those upstream with or adjacent to transportation corridors and densely populated areas, would be of added benefit. Other potential projects of value include:

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-combining winter precipitation datasets, particularly of different observation types (e.g., merging aircraft, UAS, and/or satellite with ground-based observations), toward the goal of a unified, consistent snow dataset spanning multiple decades.

-developing algorithms for snow to SWE.

-analyzing hydrometeor type and density of accumulated winter precipitation.

-airborne and in-situ technologies to collect accurately calibrated and validated SWE estimates throughout the western United States, Alaska, and upper tier to evaluate and support water resource management.

Obs-8: Harnessing data sets of opportunity. Observations that are being collected by commercial industry, states, local authorities, and private citizens, but are not presently part of an operational weather observing network, are of interest. These nonconventional observations include data collected in densely populated urban areas and gaps in the United States and territories observing networks, and surrounding oceans. Examples include but are not limited to networks of personal weather stations, data from smartphones, citizen scientist reports, mesonets, and aircraft data.

Obs-9: Other areas of interest. Including:

-studies that improve the algorithms of existing observing equipment, such as part of the Automated Surface Observing System (ASOS), to provide more accurate or complete observational information for weather services.

-improving the quality of observations through algorithms associated with observing equipment.

-observational studies involving the evolution of the planetary boundary layer in marine environments and coastal areas.

-understanding where there may be complementary or duplicative observations, and where deploying new, affordable observations could enhance the NWS mission with little or no recurring cost for maintenance or development after the award period.

-other innovative observing technologies with high potential for improving weather and water forecasts and services and have strong linkage to operational needs and potential for transition.

-innovative observations needed to improve and validate specific physics packages or processes in component models (e.g., atmosphere, ocean, land, sea ice, wave, atmospheric composition) of the Unified Forecast System (UFScommunity.org).

3. SBES

The WPO Social Science Program (SSP), in collaboration with NWS, developed the

Notice of Federal Funding Page 12 of 43 following two priorities:

SSP-1: Develop and test methodologies that systematically collect data on end users.

End-users include (but are not limited to) emergency managers, operational forecasters, broadcast meteorologists, public(s), and other weather and water decision makers. Project outputs may include methods or processes that the operational forecast community can use to understand their respective audiences. Methods developed should be accessible to those with no social science training and/or who work within the operational forecasting community. These topics include:

SSP-1(a): Identify, develop, and test methods that lead to understanding the forecaster operational decision environment. This could include uncertainty information needs as it relates to high impact weather events; spatial and temporal resolution needs;

and/or information relating to ensembles within the unified, community-based numerical weather prediction modeling suite, as well as observations, tools, technologies, and post-processing needs. This could also include collecting data on inter-office collaboration or community efforts as it relates to operational modeling in the weather enterprise.

SSP-1(b): Identify, develop, and test methods that measure the effectiveness of Impact-Based Decision Support Services (IDSS). This could include collecting needs about physical science information (e.g., information related to timing, uncertainty, severity, and/or lead times for certain types of weather events), technology (e.g., formats, interactivity), and tools (e.g., graphics, interactive, apps). This may also include ways to measure emergency managers’ risk/decision thresholds and/or other factors that could influence the effectiveness of IDSS (e.g., geographic differences, strength of relationships, local demographics).

SSP-1(c): Identify, develop, and test methods that measure how the public receives, interprets, perceives, and responds to weather information, especially warnings, with respect to protective action decision-making. This may also include ways to measure factors that influence protective action decision making, such as social and/or physical context(s), prior experiences, and geographical and/or cultural environments.

SSP-2: Improving visual and verbal communication of forecast risk and uncertainty, including probabilistic forecast information, for different hazards at various spatial and temporal time-scales and lead times (e.g., ranging from minutes to subseasonal) including:

SSP-2(a): Activities to improve the visual display of confidence, uncertainty, and/or probabilistic information for forecasters, emergency managers, and/or the public. Visual displays may include the use of static or interactive maps, graphics, virtual reality, or other

Notice of Federal Funding Page 13 of 43 creative visualizations. Visual displays may explicitly or implicitly convey probabilistic information. Project outputs may include visuals or research guided recommendations for use by the operational forecast community.

SSP-2(b): Activities leading to improved verbal communication of confidence, uncertainty, and/or probabilistic information for forecasters, emergency managers, and/or the public. Project outputs may include research guided recommendations for the operational forecast community.

SSP-2(c): Activities that increase understanding of how public(s) perceive two or more types of uncertainty as it relates to the communication of a particular weather event.

This may include uncertainty of more than one hazard, such as hurricane winds vs. inland flooding, or between more than one variable, such as the temporal vs. spatial uncertainty of a tornado. This may also include examining probability reference classes and/or numeracy scales.

SSP-2(d): Activities leading to the theoretical advancement of how scales, indices, categories, and risk and/or severity levels impact public perceptions of weather risk and uncertainty. This could include the evaluation of design cues, such as the use of colors or numbers, and/or words or phrases to help convey hazard levels.

C. Program Authority

Public Law 115-25 Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017, 15 U.S.C. 8512(c).

II. Award Information

A. Funding Availability

The total available funding and total per-project or per-project-per-year funding limits for each project for each competition are identified below and vary by competition. These estimates are based on anticipated or actual NOAA funding availability. For the case of collaborative multi-institution projects, the amounts identified below are per-project (or annual project total) amounts and not per-institution amounts. Please confirm that the requested funding amounts in your application’s budget satisfy these stated maximum limits before submitting your application to a particular competition. Any proposal that exceeds the stated per-project or per-project-per-year funding limit below for the competition to which it

Notice of Federal Funding Page 14 of 43 is submitted will be rejected and not reviewed. For information on the maximum project time period for each competition, please see Section II.B “Project/Award Period” below.

Funds allocated for each competition may be altered depending on the number and quality of proposals submitted within each competition, and federal funding appropriations.

Funding of any proposal is contingent upon the availability of these NOAA funds. “M” refers to millions of U.S. dollars. “K” refers to thousands of U.S. dollars.

1. JTTI

Approximate total grant funding per year: $3.5M Expected number of funded projects: 12 Maximum funding limit per project per year: $300K

2. Observations Approximate total grant funding per year: $3.0M Expected number of funded projects: 10-15 Maximum funding limit per project per year: $300K

3. SBES

Approximate total grant funding per year: $1.25M Expected number of funded projects: 8 Maximum funding limit per project per year: $250K

B. Project/Award Period

The maximum time period of awards and award start date are the same for all selected projects in all three competitions in this announcement (JTTI, Observations, and SBES) and are identified below. Any proposal that exceeds the stated duration will be rejected and not reviewed. The recommended project start date is also defined below for each competition.

Applicants are advised to use this date as the project start date in their proposal.

Maximum Award Length: 2 years Start Date: August 1, 2021

The formal grant award is subject to the availability of funds. It is possible that NOAA may delay the start of some grant awards due to delays in Congressional budget appropriations or other circumstances that would prevent formal grant award by the start date defined by the Principal Investigator (PI) in the proposal package. In these instances, the PI will be informed of any schedule revisions. In the event of a lapse in government

Notice of Federal Funding Page 15 of 43 appropriations, assume that there is no change to the regularly scheduled start date unless a revised schedule has been announced.

C. Type of Funding Instrument

The funding instrument for these awards will be either a grant or a cooperative agreement. If it is proposed or anticipated that NOAA employees will be substantially involved in the research or implementation of the project, the funding instrument will be a cooperative agreement. Examples of substantial involvement may include, but are not limited to, applications for collaboration between NOAA scientists and a recipient scientist or contemplation by NOAA of detailing federal personnel to work on proposed projects.

NOAA will make decisions regarding the use of a cooperative agreement or grant on a case-by-case basis based on the nature of the work proposed in the application package. All awards funding projects intending to utilize one of NOAA’s testbeds are expected to be awarded as a cooperative agreement due to the planned involvement of NOAA staff in the testbed demonstration testing.

Approved funding allocated for federal NOAA institutions shall be awarded by an intra-agency fund transfer. Inter-Agency Agreement (IAA) fund transfers to non-NOAA federal agencies are not permitted under the funding opportunities in this notice.

For collaborative projects involving investigators from multiple, separate institutions, separate awards will be issued to each institution that submits an approved proposal for those projects.

III. Eligibility Information

A. Eligible Applicants

Applicants are responsible for ensuring that they are eligible for the competition for which they are applying. If any applicants requesting funding are ineligible, the application(s) will be rejected without review.

Eligible applicants are U.S. institutions of higher education; other nonprofits;

Cooperative Institutes; U.S.-based commercial organizations; state, local and Indian tribal governments in the U.S.; and other U.S. non-profit organizations. No foreign (based outside of the U.S.) applicants may request funding. NOAA federal employees and contractors proposing to perform work directly for NOAA may serve as co-PIs or co-Investigators (co-

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Is) but are ineligible for their salary costs and are required to partner with one or more eligible non-federal institution(s) who would submit the application for the competition through Grants.gov per instructions in Section IV.G “Other Submission Requirements”.

Restrictions on requesting federal employee salary and other costs are described in Section IV.F “Funding Restrictions”. Eligibility also depends on the statutory authority that permits NOAA to fund the proposed activity.

Any NOAA federal employee listed as a co-PI, co-I, or collaborator on the title page of a proposal (if eligible) must have provided explicit pre-approval to the PI to be identified as a contributor to the proposed project prior to submission of the application. Do not add a NOAA federal employee to the application without their explicit agreement to participate in your project. Each collaborating NOAA federal institution (including NOAA centers, laboratories, and testbeds) should complete a NOAA Collaborator Acknowledgment Form (attached to this announcement; see Section IV.B.2.h) and attach it to the proposal upon submission.

All funded investigators must assure and verify if requested that they will not be allocated for greater than 100% of their annual employment time should their proposal be selected for funding. NOAA will verify this requirement if the proposal is recommended for funding.

B. Cost Sharing or Matching Requirement

No cost sharing is required under this announcement.

C. Other Criteria that Affect Eligibility

None.

IV. Application and Submission Information

A. Address to Request Application Package

Application packages for full proposals are available at:

https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/applicants/apply-for-grants.html. There is no similar official application package for Letters of Intent (LOIs) other than the requirements identified below in Section IV.B.1.

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B. Content and Form of Application

Applicants to all competitions are required to submit a full proposal and are strongly encouraged (but not required) to submit an LOI. The requirements for preparation of full applications provided below are mandatory. Failure to adhere to these instructions will result in LOIs and/or full proposals being rejected and returned without review. Some helpful resources for applicants can be found here: wpo.noaa.gov/nofo.

MULTI-INSTITUTION PROPOSALS. For joint projects spanning multiple applications and institutions, all applications for that project must have the same title and identify the same Lead PI, co-PIs and co-Is on the applications’ title page. The designated Lead PI and their associated institution will be responsible for additional documents in the event of multi-organization applications, as described in Section IV.B.2.

For multi-institution collaborative proposals with no subaward agreements, separate proposal packages with identical project titles, title pages, project narratives, and project start dates must be submitted to Grants.gov by each collaborative partner or PI institution who wishes to receive funds directly from NOAA. If any non-federal institution proposed to receive funding directly from NOAA as part of a multi-institution collaborative project fails to submit a full proposal, then all partner proposals may be rejected without review, unless a subaward agreement has been arranged. Federal institutions may not submit a full proposal.

All external proposal package components must be identical among all separate proposal submissions to Grants.gov for a multi-institution collaborative project, with two exceptions:

1) each institution’s separate budget information tables and budget justification (which will apply only to their own institution’s portion of the collaborative project and not the budgets for any other funded institution), and 2) any other institution-specific documents. Each identical title page must list all funded and unfunded PIs and their institutional affiliation(s), even if from a separate funded institution, for a given joint project.

SUBAWARDS. If a subaward agreement has been arranged with their funded co-PIs such that the full award amount will be distributed directly from NOAA to one institution, then only one project proposal must be submitted (by the Lead-PI’s institution) to Grants.gov. Any institutions receiving funding through a subaward by another institution and not directly from NOAA are not required to submit a full proposal. If a subaward agreement has been arranged with their funded co-PIs, only one project proposal must be submitted (by the Lead-PI’s institution) to Grants.gov.

SUPPORT FOR NOAA FEDERAL COLLABORATORS. The proposal may request

Notice of Federal Funding Page 18 of 43 funding to support the following costs for federal collaborators: project-related travel for federal co-PIs (including to field sites, but excluding travel for conferences, workshops, etc.); infrastructure funding required by a NOAA organization hosting a non-federal PI or co-PI at a NOAA federal facility (e.g., a NOAA Cooperative Institute employee; such as costs for federal office space or computer access); equipment necessary to complete the project; and travel for NWS forecasters in support of project-critical testbed activities. No other funding for federal institutions may be requested as part of this funding opportunity.

The need for federal NWS forecaster travel support must be coordinated with the relevant Testbed Manager(s). Requested support for federal NWS forecaster travel for testbeds may be renegotiated pending availability of NOAA Testbed resources following coordination with NOAA Testbed Managers.

If the proposal is requesting any funding to support NOAA federal collaborators, then the proposal must include a signed letter of commitment from that NOAA host organization’s director requesting such funding. Applicants may budget up to, but not more than, 20% of the total proposed budget toward these NOAA organizations’ costs. These costs should be clearly identified and justified in the letter but must not be included in the non-federal PI’s SF-424 budget documents. These costs should also be included in the budget summary on each application’s title page and be identified in the Lead-PI institution’s budget summary and budget justification described in Section IV.B.2. This sum will count against the maximum project cost as specified for the competition. The request for these funds will be considered by the WPO Program Manager and, if approved, will be provided directly to the NOAA organization if the proposal is selected. If this proposed funding is not properly documented, the application may be rejected without review.

1. Letter of Intent (LOI)

Prior to submitting a full application package (proposal) for the competitions identified in this announcement, all PIs are strongly encouraged (but not required) to submit a pre-application to NOAA in the form of an LOI for each planned project. For joint projects from more than one institution, only one LOI should be submitted, by the Lead PI. The LOI should provide a concise description of the proposed work and a summary budget table.

The purpose of the LOI review process is to provide feedback to PIs regarding whether NOAA encourages them to submit a full application by assessing relevance and value of their proposed project to the Program’s objectives in advance of preparing a more lengthy full application. Following a review, NOAA will respond to all PIs who submit an LOI

Notice of Federal Funding Page 19 of 43 either encouraging or discouraging a full proposal. Full applications will be encouraged only for LOIs deemed most relevant to this announcement's priorities and potentially valuable to NOAA's mission. However, PIs who do not submit an LOI or who are not encouraged by NOAA to submit a proposal after review of their LOI will not be precluded from submitting a full proposal. PIs will be provided, upon request, a short synthesis of the factors from the review that led to the recommendation.

The LOI should be submitted via email to oar.wpo.competitions@noaa.gov no later than 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time (ET) on September 22, 2020. Refer to Section IV.D for LOI submission information.

(a) The LOI must be no more than two pages in length, using a 12-point font and one inch margins, and it must include a project header at the top with the following information: title, the name(s) of all PI(s) and co-PIs, their home institution(s), and the name of the specific funding competition identified in Section I to which they are applying.

(b) The LOI must contain a brief description of the intended project, methodology, timelines, and project outputs/outcomes, in addition to its relevance to one or more of the specified priorities identified in Section I.B. Identify the potential operational recipient(s) of the project outcomes/outputs. If a potential recipient is a NOAA organization, identify the specific local weather/river forecast office, national forecast service center, etc.

(c) Briefly describe the current RL (see Section I.A) of the proposed project at start-up and the expected RL at project completion. Also briefly describe any future steps recommended to advance the project output(s) to its ultimate application, operationalization (by NOAA), or commercialization. Clearly state whether the project intends to leverage resources from a NOAA Testbed.

(d) The LOI must include a simple budget table to summarize funding allocation (for example, salaries, computing and communications, indirect charges, and travel). If there are any unusual allocation requests, include a brief justification.

(e) For LOIs that include a request for NOAA high performance computing resources, PIs must include an estimate of needed processing and storage requirements. Due to NOAA’s shortage of high performance computing and storage for research, investigators are strongly encouraged to seek computing resources, including cloud computing resources, from other sources and should be aware that these NOAA resources may not be available for their project.

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(f) LOIs will be reviewed by WPO following the criteria specified in Section V.A to assess the potential value of the proposed research to NOAA.

2. Full Proposal

FORMAT. All pages should be single-spaced and set in 12-point font with one-inch margins on 8 ½ x 11 inch paper. The proposal should be submitted as a PDF file. It must be dated and display page numbers. The final proposal must include a project narrative that must not exceed 14 pages, including Sections IV.B.2.(a-k) below (including the title page, abstract, figures, and data management plan), but excluding applicant Curricula Vitae (CVs), reference list, and supporting letters and forms). For separate applications from multiple institutions for the same joint project, an identical project narrative is required in each institution’s application, but they must clearly describe the work contributions of each funded PI.