About OSTI

The Office of Science and Technology Integration (STI) performs portfolio management for planning, research and development, and integration efforts for science and technology improvements across the NWS to build a Weather-Ready Nation. STI analyzes requirements for service improvements from NWS field offices and National Centers through close coordination with the AFS Office; develops potential scientific and technological solutions through coordination with partners within NOAA and with the external research community; and sponsors applied research and development of programs/projects to address these requirements. Major research and development areas of the Office include, but are not limited to, improvement of operational atmosphere, ocean, land, sea ice, hydrological and other components of environmental prediction models, operational guidance and decision support tools, and social science integration.

The Office also establishes priorities for and oversees collaborative and applied research and development activities within NWS, in coordination with other NWS offices and NOAA line offices, as well as the research community. The Office provides a centralized coordination and management of field-driven innovation and research to operations transition programs and processes. These include but not limited to, testbeds, operational proving ground (OPG); the Science Operations Officer (SOO) and Development and Operations Hydrologist (DOH) Program; Collaborative Science, Technology, and Applied Research (CSTAR) Programs; as well as cross- cutting STI projects including social science integration and training. The Office collaborates with the NWS Central Processing and Dissemination offices to maintain and enhance a centralized research, development, and testing environment, which enables transitioning research to operations through streamlining development, testing, training and field implementation.

  • STI Modeling: Transition, enhance operational models
  • MDL: Develop, transition tools and applications to support service delivery 
  • R2O: Manage Field R2O (Field R2O Team)
  • SBE SciencesIntegrating Social, Behavioral, and Economic sciences into NWS products and services
  • OPG: Manage/oversight of Operations Proving Ground (OPG) – OPG is a corporate resource jointly supported by STI-AFS-CP. OPG scope span STI, AFS and Corporate (OWA) Portfolios identified tests and evaluations.
  • VLab Cloud
  • Grants and Cooperative Institutes