Bill Gallus (Remote) (Chair), Iowa State University
Sepi Yalda, (Acting Chair) Millersville University
Jennifer Collins, University of South Florida
Steven Lazarus (Remote), Florida Institute of Technology
Lynne McMurdie, University of Washington
Chuck Pavloski, Pennsylvania State University
Dave Santek, University of Wisconsin
Russ Schumacher (Users Committee Chair), Colorado State University
Kevin Tyle, University of Albany
Jeff De La Beaujardiere (Remote), NOAA
Bernard Grant (Remote), NSF
Chris Lynnes (Remote), NASA
Mohan Ramamurthy (Director)
Ethan Davis
Doug Dirks
Terry Mitchell-Sur
Josh Young
Mohan Ramamurthy
Bernard Grant (Remote)
**Funding:** NSF requested 6.5% increase over $6B request in FY 16, Geosciences will request 6% and Atmos 5% increase. Probably under a continuing resolution for some time. Everything starts early this year because of the move over Labor Day weekend to the new building.
**Staffing:** Anjuli Bamzai from Climate and Large Scale Dynamics is going to Polar; Bernard is currently detailed to Polar, ongoing search for new Assistant Director, Roger Wakimoto will leave in February 2017. Additional ongoing search for NPS and Engineering.
**NSF REVIEW:** 2015 Committee of Visitors review of NSF AGS, prompted comment that the review of the Unidata Program Center is not as rigorous as some; questions about duplication between Unidata and NCAR or externally. To address these concerns, NSF has decided to do mid-term Site Visit Team for Unidata. NSF will have another Committee of Visitors in a year or two and this will allow us to demonstrate that we addressed previous comments. Because of the size of the award (>$20M over 5 years) concerns raised about using a grant instead of a cooperative agreement. The Site Visit Team will likely be in March 2017.
**Question:** During proposals we can suggest reviewers, can we do the same in this process?
**Response:** Bernard would welcome these suggestions with the caveat that it might be some or none.
**Question:** Will the scope of SVT include whether Unidata should be part of UCP or NCAR?
**Response:** That will not be put on the table.
**Question:** NSF is moving away from uncompeted renewals for large projects, do you think that could come up?
**Response:** This works in your favor by having a Site Visit Team, NSF can note that a review has already taken place.
**Question:** Years ago served on a Committee of Visitors for Lower Atmos with several folks representing very different organizations, so is there any way to ensure that communities are represented?
**Response:** You are correct that getting in people from different groups is very important. Folks don’t need to agree but they need to understand the program otherwise you have to try and teach them a lot of background in two days.
**Question:** It is not only that the potential Committee of Visitors don’t understand Unidata, we are also dealing with new individuals in AGS that may not have the same understanding or strong engagement with Unidata.
**Response:** That is correct there are a lot of new folks at NSF.
**Question:** How can we demonstrate the various communities funded by AGS Program Directors supported by Unidata.
**Response:** I’d like to see that as part of the Site Visit Team but it should be part of a visit to NSF as well.
**Question:** What about the 9 or 10 big ideas from Cordova?
**Response:** Not much to add on that topic, a new administration could result in a new Director at NSF.
Terry Mitchell-Sur
Fiscal Year 2016 was very active on the financial front. As part of our increased effort at securing non-core funding, we landed multiple new awards this year, including the large, three-year award for management of the EarthCube Science Support Office (ESSO). With the end of three of our five EarthCube awards in FY16, non core funding will continue to play a big part of the financial picture throughout the new fiscal year as we anticipate level funding again for the core in FY17. Two other major non core projects also ended in FY16 but were replaced with two large multiple-year awards. Although the benefits rate has increased for FY17 and our merit increases are also now in effect, we are leveraged well for the new fiscal year. We will continue to carefully monitor our financials working with the SAC to set priorities and allocate resources according to the strategic plan for the remainder of our core award as well as for the development of the next core proposal and plan. We will pursue funding and business development opportunities wherever and whenever possible in an effort to move the program forward.
Jeff De La Beaujardiere (Remote)
**Question:** What would be the next datasets for the CRADA vendors?
**Response:** Geostationary (GOES) including current as well as the new GOES-R. Working with CICS-NC to make this so. Data from fisheries is also under discussion, as well as model outputs such as intermediate steps that are not routinely available.
**Question:** Was there not IP issues with MRMS?
**Response:** You are correct there was some IP issues around algorithms, those are still pending discussions among lawyers.
**Question:** Any sense of where the CRADA is going given that you are midway between the current agreement.
**Response:** Nothing has been decided but it is a topic of active conversation. We led with a CRADA because we were not sure how else to proceed. It is clear that the cloud is beneficial and so things will likely continue somehow.
Christopher Lynnes (Remote)
Referenced Projects:
Data Interoperability Recommendations for Earth Science https://earthdata.nasa.gov/standards/dataset-interoperability-recommendations-for-earth-science
HDF Product Developer https://wiki.earthdata.nasa.gov/display/HPD/HDF+Product+Designer
**Question:** NOAA is moving a lot of data to the cloud and providing server side processing and analytics; NASA is working in this space as well; Unidata is also doing this; is there an opportunity to come together and try to tackle these problems together.
**Response:**
**Comment:** I’m thinking of moving beyond dialogue which ESIP is great for but there is also perhaps a need for co-development. Consider this type of collaboration as a partnership. Need to get together and propose sessions such as server side processing for S3 at an ESIP event. EarthCube is a possibility as well as OGC or RDA.
Strategic Plan Working Session I - Steven Lazarus/Mohan Ramamurthy
Strategic Plan Day 1 Check-in
Bill Kuo
Steven Lazarus/Mohan Ramamurthy
Break into groups (data, tools, partnerships)
Discussion of Strategic Plan Input Synthesis
The committee provided input to UPC regarding the direction of the next Strategic Plan, working documents to be distributed again once ready for comment.
__Adjourn__
Drafted by Josh Young