Forecasting WPO’s Social Science Future: Introducing WPO’s Science, Technology, and Society Division and future directions for Social Science Integration

Several years ago, the NOAA Weather Program Office (WPO) Social Science Program organized and hosted the first Social and Behavioral Sciences (SBS) Research to Operations (R2O) Workshop as an extension of the National Academy of Sciences report on Integrating Social and Behavioral Science within the Weather Enterprise. From the Workshop findings and in the interim from then until now, we have learned how critical it is to truly integrate social science into NOAA’s organizational structure to meet our mission of saving lives, protecting property, and enhancing the national economy before, during, and after hazardous weather events. This talk will provide an update on how social science is continuing to grow and integrate within the Weather Program Office, including an overview of our recent restructuring into the new Science, Technology, and Society Division. In our new Division, social science plays a prominent role both as a formal program and as a cross-cutting theme with other programs including Testbeds and the Joint Technology Transfer Initiative (JTTI) Program. Together, these three programs create a dynamic, interdisciplinary triad that encompasses basic to applied social science, co-development activities, and usability. This talk will discuss the Social Science Program’s focus areas and opportunities for Division social science priorities.