The Virtual Laboratory's NOAA Projects Registry Portlet is a tool used to collect, store, and maintain information on NOAA Research and Development (R&D) projects. The project information supports NOAA’s efforts to monitor its portfolio of projects (NAO 216-115) and to efficiently transition R&D into operations, commercialization, and other uses (NAO 216-105). The Projects Registry Portlet also supports the NWSPD 80-8 requirement that all NWS R&D projects be registered in the Projects Registry Portlet.  The Projects Registry Portlet also serves as a resource for enhancing collaboration within NOAA by helping users find others working on topics that interest them and to which they would like to contribute.

The Projects Registry contains information such as a description of the project, a point of contact, organizations involved, its Technical Readiness Level, and if applicable, where it’s being transitioned. The data is entered by project owners and sometimes by someone designated to enter data on behalf of the project owner. This data can be exported to other projects databases such as the NOAA R&D Projects Database and Monitoring System.