Annual Report Instructions for Multi-year Cooperative Projects

This report should be more detailed than the six-month update and should include a plan for the next year's work. Both the academic and the operational forecasting partners should write the report.

NOTE: Your next year of funding will not be authorized until the proposal has been reviewed, approved, and the contract modified. As this can take a month or more, you should plan on submitting your report well in advance of the budget end date.

Please send the completed report and budget page (if one is required—see section 6) in electronic form to the Outreach Program.

University:

Name of University Researcher Preparing Report:

NWS Office:

Name of NWS Researcher Preparing Report:

Partners or Cooperative Project:

Project Title:

UCAR Award No.:

Date:

SECTION 1: PROJECT OBJECTIVES AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS
1.1 (To be completed by academic and forecaster partners) Summarize the overall project objective(s). Describe the research/development activities and accomplishments carried out to date and the responsibilities of the various project participants. These accomplishments may relate specifically to the original project objectives, or they may be ones that arose during the course of the project (e.g., development of an innovative method for accomplishing the objective or insight into a related problem). Highlight any major changes to the scope of work. If the project involved separate research topics, please list each separately.

SECTION 2: SUMMARY OF RESEARCH AND EDUCATIONAL EXCHANGES
2.1 (To be completed by academic and forecaster partners) Summarize other exchanges between your two organizations. These may include seminars or training workshops conducted by either the university or NWS, participation of operational forecasters in university classes, joint preparation of publications, participation of students at the forecast office, etc. These do not have to be functions specifically funded by the COMET Outreach Program, but may include interactions undertaken in the spirit of improving relations between the academic and operational forecasting communities.

SECTION 3: PRESENTATIONS AND PUBLICATIONS
3.1 (To be completed by academic and forecaster partners) Provide complete citations using the AMS bibliographic format for each thesis, dissertation, publication or presentation prepared as part of this project.

SECTION 4: SUMMARY OF BENEFITS AND PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED
4.1 (To be completed by academic partner) List the benefits to the University resulting from the collaboration (new understanding of forecasting problems, exposure of students to operational forecasting, access to new observing systems, changes in course offerings, use of NWS personnel as resource, etc.). Identify any major problems encountered and describe their resolution.

4.2 (To be completed by forecaster partner) List the benefits to the NWS office resulting thus far from the collaboration (promising new forecasting technique, heightened interest in research in the office, better understanding of new observing systems, potential new hires, use of university personnel as resource, etc.). Please be as specific as possible, particularly in regard to any improvements in forecasting resulting from the COMET project (see examples). Identify any major problems encountered and describe their resolution.

SECTION 5: PLAN OF WORK FOR THE NEXT YEAR
5.1 (To be completed by academic and forecaster partners) Describe what tasks remain from the original scope of work and the plan for accomplishing them. Please summarize the expected division of work between the university participants and the operational forecasters.

SECTION 6: FUNDING REQUEST
(To be completed by academic and forecaster partners) If your budget is the same as in the original proposal, write a statement to that effect and do not attach a new budget page.

If you need to revise your budget, attach a new budget form and justify the changes in costs in the body of the report. Please note that increases in funding are subject to COMET Program approval and availability of funds.