The Management and Operation of the National Center for Atmospheric Research

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The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) is an NSF Federally Funded Research and Development Center. NCAR's mission is: to understand the behavior of the atmosphere and related Earth and geospace systems; to support, enhance, and extend the capabilities of the university community and the broader scientific community, nationally and internationally, and to foster the transfer of knowledge and technology for the betterment of life on Earth. NCAR fulfills this mission with tightly integrated programs organized around three overlapping primary areas of activity: cutting edge airborne and ground-based observational facilities, community weather, and climate models with many thousands of users, and petascale high-performance computing. These are accompanied by a broad portfolio of programs supporting education, career development, public engagement, and increasing diversity in the geosciences. This award funds the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) to manage and operate NCAR on behalf of NSF. Understanding the Earth system is among the most exciting and important scientific challenges of our time - from the drivers of hazardous weather events that cost the nation tens of billions of dollars in damage each year to the longer-term impacts of climate change on the water cycle, water availability, and weather extremes. Under UCAR's management, NCAR will work with the broader scientific community to observe, understand, and ultimately predict the evolution of the atmosphere and related components of the Earth system at greater time and finer spatial scales. Ultimately, these advances will improve our nation's ability to protect lives and property, enhance the American economy, and support national security. Building upon its strong stewardship of NCAR since 1960, UCAR aims to ensure that NCAR continues to be a community leader and preeminent National Center that advances the atmospheric and Earth system science communities by conducting fundamental and transformative research at the frontiers of knowledge. UCAR will operate, maintain and develop NCAR's state-of-the-art observational, computational, and modeling facilities and services. UCAR will support NCAR by recruiting, developing, and retaining an expert and increasingly diverse workforce for the National Center. UCAR will also promote an ambitious and inclusive program of research, education, and outreach to serve the scientific community, and is moving aggressively to increase diversity and inclusiveness in its culture and in STEM education for the geosciences workforce. UCAR's vision includes identifying future requirements; developing compelling NCAR strategic plans; involving the community in planning, implementation and review; providing effective and efficient performance-based management of resources; making strategic investments in NCAR; creating an environment that attracts and retains exceptional talent; and enabling new partnerships that advance the science. UCAR brings a unique governance structure through its 117 members and many academic, government, and industry partners that will strengthen and promote NCAR to represent broad national and international interests. Under this award, it is anticipated that NCAR will maintain a leadership role in creating objective information in support of national and international decisions on mitigation, adaptation, resiliency, and sustainability; and engaging interactively with the consumers of its science. This will result in improved prediction capabilities and more effective application of these advances to societal needs. Because UCAR's governance is based in academia, its management structure facilitates the development of future diverse scientists, provides access to world-leading facilities and exciting research opportunities for students, and engages the public through successful outreach program. UCAR's policy of free and open exchange of ideas, data, models, observational instruments and platforms, and information will maximize the impacts of the Center's research, development, and educational activities.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.