Social science is the study of people

—what they think, how they feel, and how they respond—in a particular context.

Recent societal impacts from hurricanes, floods, snow storms, and wildfires, shows a great need to understand the intersection of people and meteorology. The Social Science Program funds research that plays a critical role in connecting the improvements of NOAA’s weather forecast information to the public’s growing forecast needs.

Creating Actionable Information for the Public

Social Science Helps NOAA Improve Forecasts

Understand societal needs and decision making to determine what types of forecast improvements will produce the greatest societal benefit.
Assess how people receive, interpret, perceive, and respond to weather information.
Design products and services that maximize the utility of numerical weather prediction improvements while integrating our understanding of end-user decision information needs.
Understand the forecaster operational decision environment to consider and/or optimize cognitive demands as NOAA introduces new modeling tools and technologies.

Evaluate and quantify the economic value of NOAA’s products and services.
Improve and streamline processes, practices, and policies surrounding the 24/7 operational environment.

Our team works across the public, private, and academic sectors of the weather community to find and fund research to meet these goals and improve forecast delivery for the public. Through our Notice of Funding Opportunities, we select research proposals to meet our program objectives. Those objectives are based on priorities and critical areas for forecast improvement.

What’s Happening Now

Updates & Events

Current Focus Areas

Research to Applications Support

Help NOAA meet its mission by facilitating the transition of social science research and data into an operational environment.

Data & Research Support

Drive collaborative research that develops and tests methodologies that systematically collect data to ensure products and services save lives, protect property, and enhance the national economy.

Portfolio Analysis & Evaluation Support

Evaluate WPO’s evolving research and development portfolio, progress, and impact.

Project Vignettes

Putting Social Science Into Practice
for Forecast Improvement

PROJECT VIGNETTES

Putting It Into Practice
for Forecast Improvement

closeup of post it notes on a whiteboard

Envisioning the Future FACETs: Evaluating and Defining the FACETs Program

August 30, 2022

In response to the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) and National Weather Service (NWS) bi-lateral meeting 2021, the WPO Forecasting A Continuum of Environmental Threats (FACETs) Program funded a project to assess the current program and plan for a future iteration of the program. WPO hired Toffler Associates,…

Our Program is currently reviewing submitted proposals for its Fiscal Year 2023 Notice of Funding Competition.

Proposals were due by November 17th, 2022.

Have Questions?

Contact our team for questions about the proposal process.

Taking on Operational Challenges

Currently Funded Projects

Resource Library

Integrate Social Science Research into Your Projects

Transitioning to Applications

Click to watch: Readiness Levels, Transition Plans, and Knowledge Transfers, Oh My! Demystifying Social and Behavioral Research to Applications (R2X). — NOAA Library Webinar (2022) Readiness Levels, Transition Plans, and Knowledge Transfers, Oh My! Demystifying Social and Behavioral Research to Applications (R2X).

Click to watch: Building Successful R2X Collaborations: Ongoing WPO Efforts to Highlight Knowledge Transfer in NOAA’s Transition Practices, Processes, and Policies. — AMS Presentation (2022) Building Successful R2X Collaborations: Ongoing WPO Efforts to Highlight Knowledge Transfer in NOAA’s Transition Practices, Processes, and Policies.

Click to watch: Expanding the Definition of R2O: Findings from the WPO Social and Behavioral Science Research-to-Operations Workshop — AMS Presentation (2022) Expanding the Definition of R2O: Findings from the WPO Social and Behavioral Science Research-to-Operations Workshop

Click to read: Social and Behavioral Science Research to Operations Workshop Report — Workshop Report (2020) Social and Behavioral Science Research to Operations Workshop Report

Click to watch: A Community Discussion on Transitioning Social and Behavioral Science into the Next 100 Years — AMS Presentation (2020) A Community Discussion on Transitioning Social and Behavioral Science into the Next 100 Years

Click to watch: How NOAA’s Readiness Levels Work with the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences — AMS Presentation (2019) How NOAA’s Readiness Levels Work with the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences

Research and Data & Instrument Publications

Social Science Data and Instrument Publication

Social Scientists Need Observation Systems Too! How Social Science Data Can Measure the Effects of Weather Risk Communication on Society.

The Importance of Social Science Data and Instrument Publishing to Advance SBES Integration within NOAA and the Weather Enterprise.

Weather Ready Instrument and Data Publications (2021) – This special call for Weather Ready Research with the Natural Hazard Center supported the publication of social science and multidisciplinary data, data collection instruments, and research protocols for natural hazards and disaster research via the DesignSafe CyberInfrastructure.