NOAA Science Technology and Infusion Program Summit


May 19, 2006

As Program Manager of the NOAA Science, Technology, and Infusion Program (ST&I), Dr. Marty Ralph of NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratories, Physical Sciences Laboratory, along with ST&I Program Coordinator Stephan Smith of NWS/Office of Science and Technology, convened the first NOAA Weather and Water ST&I Program Summit May 16 Ð 17, 2006, in Silver Spring, Maryland. The two-day Summit, which brought together more than 40 staff from 4 NOAA Line Offices, was a critical first step towards successful FY 09-13 planning, and coincided with NOAA's official May 15, 2006 kick-off of the Program Planning phase of the FY 09-13 cycle. The ST&I program is made up of ten major Capability Teams:

  • R&D for Water Resources Observing and Forecasting Information
  • R&D for Hurricane Observing and Prediction
  • R&D for Weather and Water Support for Transportation
  • R&D for Severe Thunderstorm, Tornadoes, Hazardous Weather Forecasts and Warnings
  • R&D for Marine and Coastal Weather
  • R&D&A(Acquisitions) for Observations
  • R&D&A (Acquisitions) for IT
  • Education and Outreach
  • Collaborative Weather Research Programs
  • Weather-Climate

Guidance was provided to each of the Capability Team leads for use during late May and June to update the FY08-12 PBA. This included a review of ST&I, guidance from the Weather and Water Goal Team Lead, George Smith, a review and update on the 5-year NOAA Research Plan, and summaries of the needs for ST&I from other programs (Local Forecast and Warnings, Hydrology, Environmental Modeling, Coasts, Estuaries and Oceans, Air Quality and Aviation Weather). A description of each Capability was then provided to the entire group.

The Summit was also an opportunity for the leaders of Weather & Water's Integrating Themes for FY09-13 (i.e., Hurricanes, Water Resources/Drought, and High Impact Weather) to work with ST&I leaders and subject-area experts to identify linkages and roles within the Themes. Participants included personnel from line offices across NOAA, including OAR, NWS, NESDIS and PA&E.

Background:
ST&I is an enabling program (including roughly $40M from other NOAA and non-NOAA sources) for improving NOAA's Weather and Water services by meeting short-term needs of NOAA and its customers, while conducting long-term research that leads to breakthrough advances in services. ST&I performs state-of-the-art research and works with NOAA's service programs to infuse new science and technology via prototyping, evaluation, acquisition, and training. ST&I is a Matrix program that includes OAR, NWS and NESDIS elements, and represents roughly $100 M in annual investments.

Significance:
The ST&I program directly supports NOAA's mission goal of serving society's needs for weather and water information by improving weather and water related warnings, forecasts, and predictability, by conducting state-of-the-art research and by increasing accessibility of related information and products.

Contact: Marty Ralph