Description:

NOAA continues to make tremendous strides integrating social, behavioral, and economic sciences (SBES) research into operations, moving us toward a weather-ready nation. The SBES programs in OAR’s Weather Program Office and the NWS’ Office of Science and Technology Integration work together to advance SBES research and to transition findings to support products and services.  Although NOAA has made significant advances in the application of social science across its mission areas, challenges persist with providing equitable services, understanding and addressing diverse user needs, and assessing and measuring research to operations outcomes. To address these challenges, NOAA needs to facilitate a weather enterprise approach that includes our partners in academia, private industries, as well as faith and community based organizations. This panel session will cover several different aspects of the WPO and the NWS social, behavioral, and economic sciences programs including: 

• Discussions of  current NWS SBES operational challenges and related research needs. (NWS STI)
• An outline of best practices for applying to WPO and NWS SBES funding competitions. (NOAA WPO and NWS STI)
• Highlights of new and ongoing WPO innovations for transitioning social science research to operations in the NWS, NOAA, and the broader Weather Enterprise.  (NOAA WPO)
• A forum for the broader research and practitioner communities to reflect, respond, and comment on the presented information. (Panel Discussion with Audience Interaction and Feedback)