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FY2025 Weather Program Office Research Program Announcement - Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (SBES)

ID: NOAA-OAR-WPO-2025-28598 • Type: Posted

Description

NOAA's Weather Program Office (WPO, wpo.noaa.gov/nofo) is soliciting proposals for the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (SBES) grant competition from this funding opportunity notification. The program competition's approximate total award funding per year is $1,500,000.00.

Recent societal impacts from hurricanes, floods, snow storms, tornadoes, and wildfires demonstrates that, although there have been considerable advances in weather prediction and forecasting, there is a continual need to understand the intersection of human behavior and meteorology. A variety of social, 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 science integration within the larger weather enterprise by emphasizing the need to improve our understanding of how people (e.g., NWS stakeholders, forecasters, the public) 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. Additionally, the NOAA Science Advisory Board published a report titled Priorities in Weather Research with a recommendation to Increase investments in social and human behavioral data collection and sciences to better understand how weather products are used and to support co-development of improved products (p.6 https://sab.noaa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/PWR-Report_Final_12-9-21.pdf).

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 a progressive spectrum from research to development to demonstration to deployment. Projects appropriate for this competition range from Readiness Level (RL) 2 to RL 8 and have potential to transition to operations at either NOAA or the weather and water enterprise within the next 3 to 7 years. Additional information can be found in the Program Objectives (Section I.A) and Priorities (Section I.B), and definitions of RLs can be found in the WPO FY25 General Information Sheet (herein referred to as the General Information Sheet ) accompanying this announcement.

NOAA, OAR, and WPO encourage applicants and awardees to write their proposals and perform their work in a manner consistent with NOAA's core values, including those on diversity, inclusion, accessibility, civil rights, and scientific integrity. Promoting diversity and inclusion improves creativity, productivity, and the vitality of the weather and water research community in which WPO engages. Further information can be found at https://www.noaa.gov/organization/inclusion-and-civil-rights/diversity-and-inclusion and https://research.noaa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/FinalDraft-OAR-DEI-StrategicPlan-07Sep2021.docx.pdf.

Included under the Related Documents' tab of this announcement are several Information Sheets as well as external forms required to be submitted with proposals. If there is any conflicting information between the NOFO announcement and the attached Information Sheets, then the NOFO announcement takes priority and should be followed over any external attachments.

Background
NOAA’s Weather Program Office (WPO) is soliciting proposals for the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (SBES) grant competition. The program aims to enhance understanding of the intersection between human behavior and meteorology, particularly in light of recent societal impacts from extreme weather events.

The Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017 emphasizes the need for improved understanding of how individuals and communities respond to weather warnings and forecasts. This funding opportunity seeks to integrate SBES research into NOAA's operational forecasting to better meet public needs.

Grant Details
The WPO Social Science Program (SSP) is dedicated to finding, funding, and fostering collaborative SBES weather research. Proposals should advance identified priorities that benefit the overall weather community.

Projects must involve interdisciplinary teams integrating SBES into meteorological research, forecasting, communication of uncertainty, and understanding community vulnerabilities to weather hazards. Projects appropriate for this competition range from Readiness Level (RL) 2 to RL 8 and should have potential for transition to operations at NOAA or within the weather enterprise within the next 3 to 7 years.

Specific research priorities include:
1) Community responses to weather;
2) Behavioral responses to hazardous weather events;
3) Data, forecasts, and societal outcomes.

Eligibility Requirements
Eligible applicants include any public or private corporation, partnership, association, entity, state or political subdivision of a state, tribal government or agency. Non-NOAA federal agencies cannot receive federal funding under this competition but can serve as uncompensated partners.

Applicants must complete registrations with SAM.gov, Grants.gov, and eRA Commons prior to submission. No foreign applicants based outside of the U.S. may request funding.

Period of Performance
The maximum award length is 2 years with a recommended project start date of August 1, 2025.

Grant Value
The total available funding per year is approximately $1.5 million with an expected number of funded projects ranging from 6-7 projects. The maximum funding limit per project per year is $250,000.

Place of Performance
Projects are encouraged from all regions of the United States and its territories, with particular emphasis on studies in U.S. territories as well as in western (including Alaska and Hawaii) and mid-western states.

Overview

Category of Funding
Business and Commerce
Science and Technology and other Research and Development
Funding Instruments
Cooperative Agreement
Grant
Grant Category
Discretionary
Cost Sharing / Matching Requirement
False
Source
On 9/17/24 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration posted grant opportunity NOAA-OAR-WPO-2025-28598 for FY2025 Weather Program Office Research Program Announcement - Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (SBES). The grant will be issued under grant program 11.459 Weather and Air Quality Research.

Timing

Posted Date
Sept. 17, 2024, 12:00 a.m. EDT
Closing Date
Dec. 2, 2024, 12:00 a.m. EST Past Due
Last Updated
Oct. 17, 2024, 11:22 p.m. EDT
Version
3
Archive Date
Jan. 1, 2025

Eligibility

Eligible Applicants
Others (see text field entitled "Additional Information on Eligibility" for clarification)
Additional Info
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.

Award Sizing

Ceiling
$500,000
Floor
$100,000
Estimated Program Funding
Not Provided
Estimated Number of Grants
Not Listed

Contacts

Contact
Sandra Casseus Grantor
Email Description
Business
Contact Phone
(301) 628-1342

Documents

Posted documents for NOAA-OAR-WPO-2025-28598

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