Climate Program Office 2015

Climate variability and change present society with significant economic, health, safety, and national security challenges. NOAA advances scientific and technical programs to help society cope with and adapt to today’s variations in climate and to prepare for tomorrow’s. Toward this end, the agency conducts and supports climate research, essential oceanic and atmospheric observations, modeling, information management, assessments, interdisciplinary decision support research, outreach, education, and stakeholder partnership development. 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, as described in NOAA’s Next Generation Strategic Plan (NGSP) (http://www.ppi.noaa.gov/ngsp/). The NGSP outlines NOAA’s long-term climate goal, with the following objectives: 1) Improved scientific understanding of the changing climate system and its impacts; 2) Assessments of current and future states of the climate system that identify potential impacts and inform science, service, and stewardship decisions; 3) Mitigation and adaptation choices supported by sustained, reliable, and timely climate services; and 4) A climate-literate public that understands its vulnerabilities to a changing climate and makes informed decisions. Achieving the first of the NGSP climate objectives, an improved scientific understanding of the changing climate system and its impacts, requires a number of core capabilities be supported. These core capabilities can be broadly categorized to include: • Understanding and modeling • Observing systems, data stewardship, and climate monitoring • Predictions and projections • Integrated service development and decision support These core capabilities and research efforts now allow progress to be made toward the provision of sustained, reliable, and timely climate services, focused initially on the following societal challenges identified in the NGSP: • Climate impacts on water resources • Coasts and climate resilience• Sustainability of marine ecosystems • Changes in extremes of weather and climate Each of the Competitions announced in this Federal Funding Opportunity addresses one or more of these core capabilities or societal challenges. It is expected that applications submitted in response to this Opportunity will identify their relevance to NOAA’s climate science and services by indicating which core capabilities and/or societal challenges will be addressed by the proposed work. In this regard, application abstracts must include a paragraph describing the work’s relevance to the NGSP’s climate goal and especially the work’s relevance to the Competition being targeted. We estimate that $15.5 million will be available through this Announcement in FY 2015 for approximately 100 new awards pending budget appropriations. It is anticipated that most awards will be at a funding level between $50,000 and $200,000 per year, with some exceptions for larger awards. Investigators are highly encouraged to visit the CPO website http://cpo.noaa.gov/GrantsandProjects.aspx for information prior to submitting applications.