Establishment & Renewal
NOAA establishes a Cooperative Institute when it determines that it will be beneficial to sponsor a long-term (5-10 years) collaborative partnership with one or more outstanding non-federal, non-profit research institutions. For NOAA, the purpose of this partnership is to promote research, education, training, and outreach aligned with NOAA’s mission, to obtain research capabilities that do not exist internally, and/or to expand research capacity in NOAA-related sciences. [more] New Cooperative Institutes may be proposed by one or more Line Offices, Goal Teams, and/or the Research Council according to the procedures for establishing Cooperative Institutes described in the Cooperative Institute Handbook. Only the Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere (the Under Secretary) can approve the establishment of a new Cooperative Institute.
NOAA uses an open competition and merit-based peer review for creating new Cooperative Institutes. A limited competition may be used when NOAA determines that it is in the best interest of the government to restrict the pool of qualified applicants. The rationale for such a restriction must be justified under existing Department of Commerce and NOAA-wide federal assistance policies. A Cooperative Institute may consist of one or more research institutions that demonstrate outstanding performance within one or more established research programs in NOAA-related sciences. These institutions may include Minority Serving Institutions and universities with strong departments that can contribute to the proposed activities of the Cooperative Institute.
To provide sufficient time to conduct long-term research and increase the research capacity at a Cooperative Institute, NOAA will provide adequate funding to support research and administrative activities for a period of 5 years with an option to renew the Cooperative Institute award for one additional period of up to 5 years. The decision to renew the Cooperative Institute will be based on the outcome of an extensive peer review near the beginning of the fourth year, to be conducted under the auspices of the NOAA Science Advisory Board. This review will include a measurement of Cooperative Institute performance relative to well-established, mutually agreed-upon performance measures defined by NOAA and the research institution. NOAA will use the peer review to determine the renewal period (1-5 years) and the level of funding commensurate with the final review rating. Annual performance also will be evaluated by the responsible Line Office using the same performance measures. These performance measures will be incorporated into the award as an additional term and condition.
Funding for a Cooperative Institute can be terminated prior to the end of the current award period in accordance with 15 CFR 14.61. Reasons for termination may include poor research quality due to failure to comply with a specific term of the award, poor Cooperative Institute management, poor fiscal management, inability to complete proposed research within the time proposed, and/or the unavailability of NOAA funding for any prospective research area(s) pursued by the Cooperative Institute.
