Grants / Department of Commerce / DOC NOAA - ERA Production

NOAA-OAR-WPO-2025-28596: FY2025 Weather Program Office Research Programs Announcement - VORTEX USA

Closed Closed December 2, 2024 Opportunity NOAA-OAR-WPO-2025-28596 ☆ Save

This grant is closed. Who won this program's grants before is below, and similar open grants are at the end of the page. It is in our archive of DOC NOAA - ERA Production notices from 2024.

• Award ceiling$1.5 million
• Award floor$100,000
• Cost sharingNot required
• Funding typeCooperative Agreement, Grant

Key dates

Who can apply

This opportunity was open to the applicants described in the notice.

• Others (see text field entitled "Additional Information on Eligibility" for clarification)

Applicants are responsible for ensuring that they are eligible for this competition and identify with the appropriate title listed hereafter. The following entities are eligible and encouraged to participate in this funding opportunity, in conjunction with the Weather Program office: any public or private corporation, partnership, or other association or entity or any State, political subdivision of a State, Tribal government or agency or officer thereof. Non-NOAA federal agencies and their personnel are not permitted to receive federal funding under this competition; however, federal scientists and other employees can serve as uncompensated partners or co-Principal Investigators on applications. Federal labs and offices can also make available specialized expertise, facilities or equipment to applicants but cannot be compensated under this competition for their use, nor can the value of such assets be used as a match. If any applicants requesting funding are ineligible, the application(s) will be rejected without review. To be eligible to apply or receive an award, applicant organizations must complete and maintain three system registrations and access to include: SAM.gov, Grants.gov, and eRA Commons. For each, the complete registration process can take 4 to 6 weeks, so applicants must begin this activity as soon as possible and well before the proposal due date. For more information on how to meet these registration and application submission requirements without errors, we advise all to carefully review relevant eRA Applicant and Grantee Training modules: https://www.commerce.gov/ocio/programs/gems/applicant-and-grantee-training. Additionally, we advise that all applicants carefully read “Additional Application Package Forms” within the “Full Proposal Required Elements” section below. No foreign applicants based outside of the U.S. may request funding. Applicability to Federal Employees and Federal Contractors: Federal employees (hereafter referred to as “federal collaborator(s)”) may serve as co-Principal Investigators (co-PIs) or co-Investigators (co-Is) but their salary costs are ineligible expenses to be covered by awards from this NOFO. NOAA Federal applicants are required to partner with one or more eligible non-federal institution(s) who would submit the application for the competition through Grants.gov per instructions in Section IV.K “Other Submission Requirements.” Eligibility also depends on the statutory authority that permits NOAA to fund the proposed activity. For the purposes of this funding announcement, prospective PIs that are also employed as federal contractors have the same eligibility restrictions as Federal employees. Costs incurred by NOAA federal collaborators are eligible for funding through this NOFO only if they fit into one of the categories listed below. Further details are provided in the attached General Information Sheet. Allowed: NOAA federal collaborator travel is only eligible in critical project-dependent cases. Other allowable expenses include project-critical equipment, indirect costs for NOAA affiliate institutions, infrastructure, and testbed-related costs.NOT Allowed: Conference and workshop travel. Any other direct funding for federal institutions, including employee salaries or other costs not listed as eligible in Section III.A, will not be considered as part of this funding opportunity. All funded investigators must assure and verify, if requested, that they will not be allocated for greater than 100% of their annual employment time should their proposal be selected for funding. NOAA will verify this requirement if the proposal is recommended for funding.

Is this a realistic fit?

• Past Weather and Air Quality Research awards averaged $492,654; this notice allows up to $1.5 million per award.
• Most of the program's money (73% over five years) went to colleges and universities.
• No cost sharing or match is required.

What the grant funds

NOAA’s Weather Program Office (WPO, wpo.noaa.gov/nofo) is soliciting proposals for the Verification of the Origins of Rotation in Tornadoes EXperiment-USA (VORTEX-USA) grant competition from this funding opportunity notification. The program competition's approximate total award funding per year is $2,500,000.00. In alignment with the Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017 (Public Law 115-25), this funding opportunity will allow NOAA to support new weather, water, and earth system observing and forecasting applications, including improved analysis techniques, better statistical or dynamic forecast models and techniques, development of calibrated, probabilistic forecasts, and communication of that information to better inform the public. In particular, this NOFO will seek projects that are responsive to the priorities articulated in the Science Advisory Board's 2021 Priorities for Weather Research Report (https://sab.noaa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/PWR-Report_Final_12-9-21.pdf) as well as the National Weather Service’s strategic priority to advance probabilistic forecasting and decision support services (https://www.weather.gov/media/wrn/NWS-2023-Strategic-Plan.pdf). For the purposes of NOAA-funded projects, the maturity of projects is broadly classified using Readiness Levels (RLs), as adopted by NOAA and other federal agencies. The numerical RL scale from 1 to 9 is designed to track project maturity across a progressive spectrum from research to development to demonstration to deployment. Some science priorities in this announcement may target research at a specific maturity level and restrict proposals to specific RL ranges. Additional information can be found in the Program Objectives (Section I.A) and Priorities (Section I.B), and definitions of RLs can be found in the WPO FY25 General Information Sheet (herein referred to as the “General Information Sheet”) accompanying this announcement. NOAA, OAR, and WPO encourage applicants and awardees to write their proposals and perform their work in a manner consistent with NOAA’s core values, including those on diversity, inclusion, accessibility, civil rights, and scientific integrity. Promoting diversity and inclusion improves creativity, productivity, and the vitality of the weather and water research community in which WPO engages.

Category: Business and Commerce, Science and Technology and other Research and Development.

Applying now

This notice no longer takes applications. Agencies often post the same opportunity again under a new number, so check the program's notices on Grants.gov and the similar open grants below.

The notice on Grants.gov keeps its full text and attachments, which is useful for planning a resubmission.