Taking Social Science to the Next Level...a Community Comes Together

Achieving a Weather-Ready Nation will require a deeper understanding of the nature-society interface, inspiring NOAA to continue to build its social and behavioral science (SBS) capacity. While meaningful organizational change takes time, several activities have reached a point of maturity that active engagement and input is being sought from the entire weather enterprise. In particular, the newly-formed NOAA Social Science Committee has launched initiatives of relevance to the AMS weather & climate community that will form the basis of this talk. These activities include a Social Science Vision & Strategy, a review of literature in risk communication and decision sciences with attendant white papers summarizing key issues, cross-line funding opportunities, a planned SBS webinar/training series, a forthcoming National Academies Study, and more. We strongly encourage feedback from researchers, practitioners, and the private sector as we continue to develop this capacity.