FY2025 Weather Program Office Research Programs Announcement - Testbeds
FY2025 Weather Program Office Research Programs Announcement - Testbeds aims to fund projects that advance applied weather research and improve forecasting tools for severe weather hazards by collaborating with NOAA's testbeds to ensure practical application in real-world forecasting operations.
The NOAA’s Weather Program Office (WPO) Testbeds Program for FY2025 offers funding to support research and development (R&D) projects that advance weather forecasting technologies and methodologies. This funding opportunity aligns with the Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017 and is aimed at enhancing NOAA’s weather, water, and earth system observations and forecasting capabilities. The program focuses on projects that can be tested in NOAA’s quasi-operational forecasting environment across five key testbeds: Climate, Fire Weather, Hazardous Weather, Hurricane and Ocean, and Hydrometeorology. With approximately $4.2 million in total funding, NOAA anticipates supporting 13-15 projects, each limited to a maximum funding request of $300,000 per year for up to three years. The program’s objectives include supporting the transition of mature R&D projects to operational use within NOAA, emphasizing projects that address one or more priority areas such as probabilistic forecasting, model improvements, and data assimilation. Each testbed has specific focus areas, such as seasonal prediction for the Climate Testbed, microscale fire spread forecasting for the Fire Weather Testbed, and tropical cyclone tracking for the Hurricane and Ocean Testbed. Proposals are expected to target readiness levels (RLs) 5 to 8, indicating near-operational maturity, with clear pathways for integration into NOAA’s forecast models or operational services. Eligible applicants include U.S.-based public and private entities, educational institutions, and local, state, and tribal governments. Federal employees may participate as collaborators but are ineligible for direct funding. International entities cannot apply for funding. Applicants must ensure they are registered with SAM.gov, Grants.gov, and eRA Commons prior to submission. The program encourages diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) in proposal design, with particular consideration given to projects that engage underserved communities or foster a diverse research environment. Applicants are encouraged to submit a Letter of Intent (LOI) by October 2, 2024, to receive feedback on alignment with program objectives before submitting a full application. The final application is due on December 2, 2024. Proposals must include a project narrative outlining objectives, methodology, and anticipated impacts, alongside a detailed budget, data management plan, and, if applicable, a software management plan. Multi-institutional projects should designate a lead principal investigator (PI) and submit separate budgets for each participating entity. Evaluation criteria prioritize project relevance to program goals, technical merit, team qualifications, cost efficiency, and commitment to DEIA. Projects will be reviewed for their potential impact, alignment with NOAA priorities, and feasibility within the proposed timeline and budget. Notifications of funding decisions are anticipated by June 2025, with project start dates expected in August 2025. Successful applicants will submit semi-annual progress reports and a final report summarizing project outcomes. Data generated must be made publicly accessible per NOAA’s data sharing policy, and software should adhere to open-source guidelines where possible. Compliance with NEPA, as well as reporting on DEIA and outreach activities, is required.
Award Range
$150,000 - $900,000
Total Program Funding
Not specified
Number of Awards
15
Matching Requirement
No
Eligible Applicants
Additional Requirements
Applicants are responsible for ensuring that they are eligible for this competition and identify with the appropriate title listed hereafter. The following entities are eligible and encouraged to participate in this funding opportunity, in conjunction with the Weather Program office: any public or private corporation, partnership, or other association or entity or any State, political subdivision of a State, Tribal government or agency or officer thereof. Non-NOAA federal agencies and their personnel are not permitted to receive federal funding under this competition; however, federal scientists and other employees can serve as uncompensated partners or co-Principal Investigators on applications. Federal labs and offices can also make available specialized expertise, facilities or equipment to applicants but cannot be compensated under this competition for their use, nor can the value of such assets be used as a match. If any applicants requesting funding are ineligible, the application(s) will be rejected without review.To be eligible to apply or receive an award, applicant organizations must complete and maintain three system registrations and access to include: SAM.gov, Grants.gov, and eRA Commons. For each, the complete registration process can take 4 to 6 weeks, so applicants must begin this activity as soon as possible and well before the proposal due date. For more information on how to meet these registration and application submission requirements without errors, we advise all to carefully review relevant eRA Applicant and Grantee Training modules: https://www.commerce.gov/ocio/programs/gems/applicant-and-grantee-training. Additionally, we advise that all applicants carefully read Additional Application Package Forms within the Full Proposal Required Elements section below.No foreign applicants based outside of the U.S. may request funding.Applicability to Federal Employees and Federal Contractors: Federal employees (hereafter referred to as federal collaborator(s)) may serve as co-Principal Investigators (co-PIs) or co-Investigators (co-Is) but their salary costs are ineligible expenses to be covered by awards from this NOFO. NOAA Federal applicants 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.K Other Submission Requirements. Eligibility also depends on the statutory authority that permits NOAA to fund the proposed activity. For the purposes of this funding announcement, prospective PIs that are also employed as federal contractors have the same eligibility restrictions as Federal employees.Costs incurred by NOAA federal collaborators are eligible for funding through this NOFO only if they fit into one of the categories listed below. Further details are provided in the attached General Information Sheet.Allowed: NOAA federal collaborator travel is only eligible in critical project-dependent cases. Other allowable expenses include project-critical equipment, indirect costs for NOAA affiliate institutions, infrastructure, and testbed-related costs.NOT Allowed: Conference and workshop travel. Any other direct funding for federal institutions, including employee salaries or other costs not listed as eligible in Section III.A, will not be considered as part of this funding opportunity.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.
Geographic Eligibility
All
Application Opens
September 17, 2024
Application Closes
December 2, 2024
Grantor
Jordan Dale
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