Transition of Research Applications to Climate Services
(TRACS) Program

Application of the best available science and technology is essential to meeting NOAA's mission. This demands an operations enterprise able to apply new research in a timely manner, a research enterprise focused on understanding and applying emerging science and technology to user needs, and effective and efficient processes and procedures to ensure the timely transfer of research to operational status or information services in meeting mission responsibilities. ¹

NOAA's Climate Program Office has established a Regional Decision Support (RDS) Program to support 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 information services; and 3) operational production and delivery of local and regional climate services that can be utilized to enhance risk and adaptive management options. NOAA's RDS activities include efforts managed by the research and operational entities of the agency, and involve partnerships with other agencies, universities, data centers, and stakeholders. The Climate Assessments and Services Division (CASD) within the Climate Program Office houses the RDS Program's research and transition capabilities (see above #1 & #2) including the Sectoral Applications Research Program (SARP), the Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments (RISA) and Transition of Research Applications to Climate Services (TRACS) Programs. ²

The TRACS Program transitions experimentally mature climate information tools, methods, and processes, including computer related applications (e.g. web interfaces, visualization tools), from research mode into settings where they may be applied in an operational and sustained manner. TRACS primary goal is to generate sustained delivery of useful climate information products and services to local, regional, national, and international decision and policy makers. TRACS seeks not only to support implementation of these transitions, but also to learn from partners how to better accomplish technology transition processes for public goods applications and improved risk management. The title TRACS, besides evoking a focus of being "on-track", should also call attention to three key elements and their interplay. These activities include, transitions (i.e. a focus on partnerships where technology hand-offs occur), research applications (i.e. experimentally developed and tested, end-user-friendly information to support decision making), and climate services (i.e. the routine and timely delivery of that information, including via partnerships).

¹ NOAA Administrative Order (NAO) 216-105: POLICY ON TRANSITION OF RESEARCH TO APPLICATION:
¹, ² Definitions:
Transition: The act of passing from one state, place, or stage to another; the act of handing over something to another person (The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000)
Research: Systematic study directed toward fuller scientific knowledge or understanding of the subject studied.
Application(s): Information Services and Operations
Information Services: Timely production and delivery of interpreted and/or synthesized data, decision tools, and scientific knowledge and understanding to decision and policy makers, scientific community, and the public.
Operations: Sustained, systematic, reliable, and robust mission activities, with an institutional commitment to deliver appropriate, cost-effective products and services. Climate Services: The timely production and delivery of useful climate data, information, and knowledge to decision makers ("A Climate Services Vision: First Steps Toward the Future" (2001), Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate (BASC), National Research Council)

What TRACS is?
TRACS supports partnerships to transition climate time-scale products and services. TRACS is designed to compliment on-going research partnerships and catalyze interactive learning among researchers, operational entities, extension agents, and end-users developed under the RDS SARP and RISA Programs—or in other similar ventures involving NOAA and its stakeholder communities. TRACS should build bridges between decision support research and operations capabilities and partners. TRACS proposals should focus on developing means of communication and feedback, and on deep engagement with the operational and end-user communities over a finite period, but should also help establish relationships and trust that will endure over time. TRACS is intended to transition research applications that have been tested in practice "downstream" of major research activities, have the potential to be reliably applied, and are on the cusp of being ready to "hand-off" for regular and sustained delivery and/or use. TRACS may help facilitate transition into applications of products and services developed in "test-beds". TRACS proposals may focus on local, regional, or national scale decision support tools and systems. TRACS focuses on climate time-scales, but welcomes work on the interaction among climate and weather research and decision-making. TRACS proposals should rigorously identify and evaluate the benefits to society of the transition project.

What TRACS is not?
TRACS is not an operational or services activity by itself, but by design functions as a bridge to effect research transitions through partnerships with operational entities. TRACS does not support major "upstream" research and development (R&D) for observing, modeling, or forecast systems, including the funding of "test-beds". TRACS is not intended to be a means to develop "from scratch" end-to-end research applications, to support initial contact with operational or user partners, or to explore more broadly the development of climate services (these activities are supported more generally by the NOAA SARP and RISA Programs, along with the rest of the Climate Program Office portfolio).

In Summary: the objective of TRACS is to fund projects to develop or enhance climate products and services, build capacity among decision makers to understand, access, and use climate-related decision support tools or technologies, and ensure that NOAA and its partners (federal, regional, state, and the private sector) are capable of routinely delivering climate information to the public.

The TRACS Program is open to the climate and weather research communities, including the private sector. The tools transferred may have been developed, tested, and the benefits evaluated previously under other Climate Program Office Programs. TRACS is designed to accommodate four types of transition project partnerships:

• Within NOAA units
• From external partners to NOAA
• From NOAA to external partners
• Among external (NOAA) partners (using NOAA funds)

It is suggested that successful projects should include the following elements, as well as address the program goals and objectives. These conditions are:

• Clearly defined climate time-scale dimension to the problem and solution/tools, even if applied to weather time-scale decision support;
• Clearly defined decision maker, research, operations and extension partners--including all participants involved in proposal preparation is highly recommended;
• A management plan: including project description, roles and responsibilities of partners (i.e. team interactions), and detailed methodology and timeline (i.e. how components will be integrated and implemented), including duration less than 5 years;
• Benefit analysis (rigorous valuation of socio-economic, ecosystem, or other measurable benefits), including outline of methodological approaches for evaluation;
• Address post audit evaluation (validation, verification, refinement, maintenance, etc.) to determine at the end of the project if the transition has been achieved and is sustainable;
• Formal agreement between participants (if possible) - represented as signatures on the proposal and/or more formal documents, such as, Letters of Support or Memoranda of Understanding (MOU);
• Demonstrate generally how the project supports NOAA mission goals.

Figure 1: TRACS Partnership Model