The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA’s) contributions to the U.S.Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) are distributed across the agency and around thecountry, presenting significant programmatic and technical integration challenges. Recognizingthe need for a more formalized, programmatic structure that can address these challenges andmanage the transition toward an integrated, cohesive system, NOAA established a new programwithin its National Ocean Service to serve as the overall point of contact and to provide aconsistent management function for NOAA’s IOOS activities.The NOAA IOOS Program (the Program), in collaboration with partners from all NOAA LineOffices, Office of Program Planning and Integration, and Budget Office, initiated a strategicplanning process in May 2007 to establish a long-term vision and mission for the Program, aswell as a clear set of goals and objectives to advance NOAA’s contributions to the U.S. IOOS.This strategic plan focuses on the NOAA IOOS Program’s contributions to the broader U.S.IOOS effort. It serves as a working document for the NOAA IOOS Program to orientprogrammatic direction and to guide activities within the scope of NOAA's missions and withinthe context of the larger U.S. IOOS. The plan by design includes more detail than most classicalstrategic plans. While established programs may not require additional context to explain theirgoals and objectives, it was important for this strategic plan to articulate the purpose of each goaland specific actions needed to achieve defined objectives.The strategic plan complements IOOS guidance documents, such as the First U.S. IOOSDevelopment Plani and US Strategic Plan for the Integrated Earth Observation System (IEOS),iiand builds on the Draft U.S. IOOS Strategic Plan developed by the Interagency Working Groupon Ocean Observations (IWGOO).iii Because no single agency has the capacity or resources tofully implement U.S. IOOS, this plan does not directly address all aspects of U.S. IOOSdevelopment.The Program will evaluate progress annually and revisit its strategic goals and objectives within3 years as the distributed program implementation structure and benefits are tested. This midtermreview will allow the Program to align efforts with potential administration and legislativechanges, and associated priority shifts, as well as the more comprehensive funding requestsadvanced through NOAA’s annual Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution System(PPBES) process.
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