The NOAA Cooperative Institutes Program: A Successful Bridge for Cutting Edge Research to Integrate with Mission-Driven Science and Management

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has 92 federal statutes that describe its mission for the Nation.  Yet NOAA’s science capability barely scratches the surface of data and information needs to make informed decisions and implement these missions.  Thus relationships with the academic community are a critical foundation to developing and sustaining the science program that underpins the NOAA mission.

Beginning in 1967 NOAA’s predecessors entered into cooperative research agreements to leverage academic resources to support federal science.  Today, the NOAA Cooperative Institutes (CI) Program supports 18 CIs nationally at 42 universities in 27 states and the District of Columbia.  The CI Program supports all of NOAA’s missions including Fisheries, Climate, Coastal Habitat protection and Restoration, Weather forecasting and meteorology, satellite data analysis, and atmospheric science.

This paper will describe the CI construct; highlight how the CIs and NOAA work together, and describe the foundational and nimble science that CIs present to NOAA so that our lumbering federal bear can be better informed and more scientifically capable in implementing its mission.