FY09 FRN (pdf)

FYO9 SARP Information Sheet

NOAA's Climate Program has recently established a Regional Decision Support (RDS) effort to accelerate the Program's interaction with users of climate information and forecasts at multiple spatial and geographical scales. The RDS portfolio helps NOAA identify and serve the nation's needs for climate information to support decision making through an integrated program of: 1) research and assessment related to impacts and decision making needs; 2) transition of research to operations; and 3) operational production and delivery of local and regional climate services that can be utilized to enhance adaptive management options. NOAA's RDS activities include efforts managed by the research and operational entities of the agency, and involve productive partnerships with other agencies, universities and stakeholders. In support of the research component of the RDS effort, the newly established NOAA Sector Applications Research Program (SARP) will identify and promote research and application priorities that foster improved decision support for fundamental climate-related issues in key socio-economic sectors. The SARP effort, which has its roots in the Human Dimensions of Global Change Research (HD); the Environment, Science and Development (ESD); and the Climate Variability and Human Health (CVHH) programs, is complementary to NOAA's other substantial investment in decision support research: the Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessment (RISA) program. Together, the two efforts seek to provide effective geographical and topical coverage of climate-related issues in a decision-making context.

Program Goals

SARP is designed to systematically build an interdisciplinary and expressly applicable knowledge base and mechanism for the creation, dissemination and exchange of climate-related research findings critical for understanding and addressing resource management challenges in vital social and economic sectors (e.g., coastal, water resources, agriculture, health, etc.). The overarching goals of SARP include:

• The provision of new and/or synthesized science-based knowledge that results in the identification and reduction of vulnerability to climate variability and change in key socio-economic sectors;

• The enhanced and increasingly sophisticated use of climate information, including forecasts, in decision making;

• The development of a research and operations agenda that increasingly meets the need of the Nation and NOAA through an understanding by scientists and science managers of stakeholder requirements.