Award Guidelines

Research to Operations Award

Moving Weather Ready Research Findings and Data Into Operations

Call Now Closed!

Proposal Q&A Session

Learn more about this funding opportunity by watching the recorded Q&A session here.

Overview

The Natural Hazards Center—with funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Science Foundation (NSF)—invites previous awardees from the Weather Ready Research Award Program to apply for a Research to Operations Award.

The purpose of this call is to encourage past awardees to submit new proposals that will extend and translate previously reported research findings or published data or instruments into weather ready operations. Specifically, Research to Operations Awards will support previous awardees in:

  • building connections with meteorologists, emergency managers, or other practitioners;

  • developing new tools, technologies, or trainings that support research to operations; or

  • transferring knowledge to weather professionals or community partners who are interested in applying research to prepare communities for weather-related hazards.

Award Details At-A-Glance

Please see below for key proposal and deliverable requirements. Additional details and due dates are included throughout this call.

  • Eligibility: Only prior awardees who completed all required deliverables from the Weather Ready Research Award Program are eligible to submit proposals. If your final report is not yet due, you are still welcome to apply.

  • Team Leadership and Composition: Applications must be led by at least one team member who was part of the original project when it was initially funded. The lead investigator must also be from the social, behavioral, or economic sciences. Investigators and collaborators from other disciplines and non-academic institutions are encouraged to join the lead investigator.

  • Partners: Projects must include at least one organizational or community partner that will help move the research into operations. Investigators are strongly encouraged to develop partnerships with those in the weather community such as emergency managers, operational forecasters, broadcast meteorologists, and other weather decision-makers.

  • Proposal Deadline: Proposals are due by 5:00 p.m. MST on Friday, February 7, 2025.

  • Funds: Up to eight Research to Operations awards will be supported in the amount of $7,500 to $10,000 each.

  • Final Deliverable: All awardees must submit a Research to Operations Brief within six months of award activation. This Brief must include an example of materials—documents, webpages, videos, etc.—developed during the project. The item you submit for this purpose will vary from awardee to awardee depending on your project’s main activities. For more details, see the Research to Operations Brief guidelines.

Proposal Guidelines

Proposals may not include new research data collection or analysis activities. Instead, they will aim to develop sustainable ways to share existing research findings, published data, or published instruments—as generated through the Weather Ready Research Award Program—with community partners through a tool, application, or activity. Project evaluation and secondary data analysis will be supported. Proposals may also focus on novel ways to assist weather professionals in adopting new practices based on research findings. They also may improve access, use, or reuse of published research instruments or data.

Funded activities may include, but are not limited to:

  • Organizational or community-based interventions. Work with local communities, institutions, weather agencies, or emergency management organizations to develop new interventions that incorporate findings or published data from the initially funded Weather Ready Research Award.

  • Educational webinars, trainings, or workshops. Disseminate research findings or published data and train practitioners to use them through innovative platforms or educational events.

  • Websites, videos, podcasts, or other multimedia. Identify an audience or audiences of interest and share research findings or published data using multimedia or other creative outreach activities.

  • Program or project evaluations. Work with partners to evaluate how well their programs or services meet the community weather needs identified in the initial research project. This may include, but is not limited to, evaluation methodologies or approaches for tracking societal outcomes over time.

All proposals must clearly identify the primary audience or audiences for sharing findings or data, and the primary partners that will participate in the project. Proposals should also emphasize one or more of the following areas for expanding practitioner or community engagement:

  • Facilitate dialogue. Project activities could include engaging organizational partners or community groups to facilitate a dialogue about questions, concerns, and/or education needs related to the initial project topic.

  • Increase awareness and maximize reach. Projects are encouraged that increase community or organizational awareness, interest, and understanding of the initial research findings. Teams are also encouraged to include efforts to maximize reach to demographically and geographically diverse audiences and use the most effective ways to achieve the desired impact.

  • Sustain partnerships and support coalition building. Project activities can encourage ongoing collaborations or build new partnerships. Proposals that offer a vision for sustaining coalitions that support the adoption of research findings are encouraged.

Proposal Submission Process

Applicants will submit a full project proposal through the Natural Hazards Center’s online proposal submission form by no later than 5:00 p.m. MST on Friday, February 7, 2025. To be fair to those who submit on time and as required, no exceptions will be made for late submissions.

Proposals are required to include the following elements:

  • Investigator Name(s), Affiliation(s), and Discipline(s)

  • Full URL of the Research Report or the Published Data or Instrument that this proposal will build on. If your report is submitted and under review, please indicate the date submitted. If you are still in the process of completing your original research, please indicate the due date for your forthcoming report.

  • Project Title: Limit 12 words. (Please use APA title case)

  • Full Abstract: Limit 500 words. Briefly describe the project’s purpose, partners, main activities, and expected outcomes. Be sure to include how the project will help transfer knowledge, build connections, and implement research findings from the initially funded project.

  • Brief Abstract: Limit 100 words. To be posted on the Natural Hazards Center website. See examples of the format here.

  • 3-5 Keywords

  • Proposal Narrative and Appendices: The proposal narrative should be a maximum of 5 single-spaced pages, with additional pages allowed for budget, references, and appendices. Please download the Proposal Narrative Template and follow the instructions. Once completed, please save the document as a single PDF, no larger than 4MB and upload to the online submission form, where indicated.

Download the Proposal Narrative and Appendices Template

Award Deliverables

Required Deliverables

The Research to Operations Award is designed to provide previous awardees an opportunity to move their research into action. To document and share with the public how they met this goal, all award recipients are required to submit a Research to Operations Brief. The following steps must be completed no later than September 26, 2025:

  • Draft a 3-page Research to Operations Brief that summarizes the project’s objectives, partnerships, activities, results, lessons learned, and other achievements. Please make sure and use the Research to Operations Brief Template and Checklist, that can be downloaded as a Word document.

  • As part of your brief, you will submit an example of materials—documents, webpages, videos, etc.—developed during the project. The item you submit for this purpose will vary from awardee to awardee depending on your project’s main activities. For more details, see the Research to Operations Brief guidelines.

The Natural Hazards Center editors will review your submission. If the brief is approved after editing, it will be added to the Natural Hazards Center website and shared through social media and other outlets.

Recommended Deliverables

It is recommended that all award recipients—including the lead investigator and any collaborators—do the following:

Funding Agreement

Award recipients must carefully read and agree to the following funding criteria:

  • The lead investigator designated in the proposal must be from an academic institution based in a U.S. state, territory, or tribal nation. Co-leads, project assistants, or local collaborators are not subject to this requirement—these individuals cannot, however, serve as the project lead and primary award recipient.

  • The lead investigator must have a degree or relevant training in the social, behavioral, and economic sciences. Those from other disciplines and from outside of academia are welcome to serve as collaborators.

  • Teams can be of any size. However, award payments can be distributed to a maximum of three team members as designated by the lead investigator (for example, 50% of the award sent to the lead, 25% to the co-lead, and 25% to a local collaborator).

  • Payments will be sent directly to the awardees designated in the budget. Funds should be used to cover project-related expenses or time dedicated to Research to Operations Award activities.

  • This award funding cannot be sent directly to a university or other agencies or institutions, and overhead or indirect costs associated with these funds are not allowed.

  • Expenses may need to be paid out of pocket if work begins before payment is received. Due dates will not be extended due to delays in payment processing.

  • Per tax compliance requirements, the University of Colorado Boulder will report payments to taxing jurisdictions when required. Individual payees will be issued any applicable tax forms directly from the University. Payees are responsible for any and all tax consequences related to payments they have received.

  • Individual recipients of these awards will be solely responsible for all tax reporting and ramifications. The Natural Hazards Center cannot provide tax advice. Awardees are allowed to include estimated taxes in their budget justification.

  • If you or one of your team members are a University of Colorado employee, please reach out to the Natural Hazards Center team at haz.research.awards@colorado.edu prior to submitting a proposal, as the funding distribution has different requirements, including additional fringe and payroll tax considerations.

  • For award recipients who are not U.S. citizens, the payment process may take longer and will require additional paperwork. All payments made to visa holders are submitted through the International Tax Office at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Award funding will be processed after proposals are accepted and awards are announced. To receive the award funding, the designated recipients will need to return:

  • One copy of a completed and signed funding agreement, to be issued upon approval to designated recipients of the award funds. The information for payees will be filled out on the form.

  • A W-9 or W-8BEN for all payment recipients (W-9 is for U.S. citizens or permanent residents; W-8BEN is for non-U.S. persons).

Once the award has been activated and the award agreement and tax forms have been submitted to the Natural Hazards Center, researchers may begin their Research to Operations Award project work.

Questions?

Please contact the Natural Hazards Center at haz.research.awards@colorado.edu.

Acknowledgements

The Weather Ready Research Award program is based on work supported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Weather Program Office through supplemental funding to the National Science Foundation (NSF Award #1635593). Opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations produced by this program are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of NOAA, NSF, or the Natural Hazards Center.