Ready or Not, Choose a Readiness Level! How NOAA's Readiness Levels Work with the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences

NOAA introduced Readiness Levels 1-9 (RLs) as a systematic project metric and measurement system that supports assessments of the maturity of R&D projects for transition from research to operation, application, commercial product or service, or other use and allows the consistent comparison of maturity between different types of R&D projects.

As the RL’s are being used more frequently as a metric in NOAA Federal Funding Opportunities, concerns have arisen regarding how to apply these RL’s to social, behavioral and economic science (SBE). We are interested in discussing how to best adapt what these RL’s mean for SBE, and make the distinction between RL’s for SBE.

This presentation will provide an overview of NOAA Readiness Levels, as well as providing examples on how they could work. Transitioning between RL’s will also be discussed as we have discovered transitioning between RLs looks different for social science compared to the physical sciences. As for example, not all NOAA programs span all of the nine readiness levels. Lastly, this session will share challenges and success stories, and gather feedback on if these reflect the external communities experience.