building partnerships between the academy and private sector meteorology john t. snow college of...
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Building Partnerships between the Academy and
Private Sector Meteorology
John T. Snow
College of Geosciences
The University of Oklahoma
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In the last 20 years, forecasts of future weather have improved dramatically due to …
… enhanced understanding of Earth's atmosphere,
… better observing systems, and
… faster computers
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Today's improved forecasts support the traditional applications of …
… Providing vital warnings about severe and
hazardous weather, helping to protect lives and
mitigate property loss
… Supporting critical aviation and marine
transport
These are traditional roles for the National Weather Service, as mandated by the Congress
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Today’s improved forecasts also support a host of new and improved applications in private industry to …
… increase efficiency of operations, and
… enhance economic competitiveness while reducing risk
Servicing this growing demand for weather information is the role of the private sector
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Weather sensitive industries are recognizing the value of incorporating weather information into decision cycles
• Most decision processes are cyclic, often contain time-critical elements; key information must be current and available exactly when needed asynchronous
• Most decisions are made by non-meteorologists minimize interpretation, discussion of the delivered information package
• Most decisions are focused on small regions; need to inter-relate weather information with distribution of infrastructure, demographics, etc… at county, watershed, plume level GIS format
• Rare but extreme events often the critical item! (at same time, must keep broader perspective, e.g., 3 May 99 events outside OKC)
Fundamental question: Where can weather information can make a significant difference in a decision process?
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Bottomline:
Modern meteorological products and services have great potential for significantly enhancing business decisions IF those products and services are correctly tailored to support the relevant decision processes
Question: How do private sector meteorologists best take advantage of this rapidly evolving situation?
Parts of the answer:
• Move beyond repackaging to developing capabilities to produce own products and services
• R&D driven by the private sector since they are the interface to the customer
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Public Sector vis-a-vis the Academy
• Private Sector Meteorology by and large continues to use modern technology “to do old things better” tailoring of existing products from federal government
• New generation of meteorologists in universities looking for opportunities to use modern technology “to do new things” design of new products and services
• Private Sector Meteorology has little internal research capability; has largely relied on informal tech transfer of federally funded research
• Universities desire to grow research base by partnering with private industry, but communication can be a challenge
NEEDED – A New Paradigm: Universities and Private Sector Meteorology must approach weather-related R&D as partners
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The Diverse Private Sector
• Commercial Forecasting Firms provide industry-specific forecasts and consulting services
• Data Providers obtain data from government, repackage it and pass it on to the public, other users
• Media communicate data to general public
• Instrument manufacturers provide observing equipment
• Government contractors provide a range of supporting services to the federal government
• Largely Missing: Modelers, Observing Systems
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What do Universities Bring to the Table?
• Students – the “best and brightest” from all around the world
• Stimulating intellectual environment– Unique blend of education, research, and operations– Proximity to key federal facilities– Visitors, seminars, conferences, etc...– Breadth - multi-disciplinary expertise, specialty areas, “human dimension”
• Facilities, including massive computational resources
• Entrepreneurial spirit– Funding opportunities, leveraging of research funds
• Access to new ideas, new technology
• Role of “honest broker” between federal, state, and local governments and the private sector (neutral territory)
• Negatives: Universities seldom do anything very quickly; bureaucratic; often internally very territorial; faculty are individualistic, self-made entrepreneurs
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What Do Universities Need from
Private Industry? • Funding
• Access to private sector data and data gathering facilities
• Internships, trainee-ships for students
• Collaborative arrangements to access private sector employees and provide professional opportunities for university employees
• Return on prior investments in R&D in terms of technology transfer and local economic development
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Mechanisms 1, 2, 3
• Donations
• Grants
• Contracts
These are various types of traditional relationships between a university and a private sector entity, but they do not represent, by themselves, partnerships
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Mechanisms 4 and 5 • Co-operative Agreement – an arrangement with one entity
• Consortium – a joint arrangement with multiple entities
– Built around a limited number of specific “research themes” focused on topics of mutual interest
– Private sector partner(s) guarantee(s) a certain level of core funding; other funds provided on a project- by-project basis; leverages third-party funds obtained via competitive grants and contracts
– 5-year agreement, renewable continuity– Private sector partner(s) get(s) advantage of a collaboration with
minimum upfront investment; recovers investment through reduced University Indirect Cost (overhead) on specific research projects
By their nature, these require active participation of all involved partnership
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Important Details
• Intellectual Property management
• Security of proprietary materials, techniques
• Publication
• Start-up details
• Size of core staff – minimize administration, maximize researcher, post-doc, student support
• Detailing of private sector staff– Special product development– In-house “sabbaticals”
• Relationships with other university programs – in-house collaboration, not competition
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Challenges 1
• Conquering “the not invented here syndrome”– Must eliminate the insecurities that perceives external input
to an organization as a threat – Come to see research as a continuum stretching from
basic/fundamental to prototyping/beta-testing to operational applications, with both universities and private sector having roles to play
• Overcoming the territorial mentality common in both private sector and universities– Organizations with strong territoriality are poorly adapted
to working in a systems context, or across traditional boundaries
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Challenges 2
• Crossing the “Valley of Death” – the transition from research results to operational practice– Traditional “over the transom” approach very slow, very
inefficient partnership effort necessary for efficient, timely transfer
– From the outset of a research project, establish ownership of intellectual property and have a formal tech transfer plan detailing how the results will be infused into the sponsor’s operations
– Be open to a variety of approaches – workshops, experimental forecast facilities, etc…
– Insure that all players are recognized and rewarded
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What Does It Take to Make a University – Private Sector Partnership Work?
• Complimentary working relationship between private sector and university insures that results are market-oriented
• Critical mass of faculty, professional staff, students + private sector staff intellectual capital
• Intellectual leadership with a commercial orientation willingness to undertake a market-driven research and development agenda within the University
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Potential Research Themes On Which Universities and Private Sector Could Partner – a University View
• Flexible environmental observing systems to supplement, extend national systems – smart sensors, adaptive observing networks, intelligent agents
• GIS-based integrated display and analysis systems to simplify transport of information to a wide variety of customers
• Decision support systems for a broad range of customers
• High resolution, extended capability radars
• Asynchronous predictions at storm- and meso-scale
• Seasonal and interannual climate
• Agriculture and bio-meteorology
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How can Private Sector Companies Promote Partnerships with Universities?
• Articulate a research agenda and establish goals and priorities; disseminate to the university community
• Support open publication of research results
• Develop mechanisms for sharing people, e.g., model the IPA program
• Co-locate appropriate facilities, with a secondary mission of developing partnerships
Awareness Interactions Collaborations
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Challenge to Universities: Re-Invent Meteorology as an Engineering Discipline
Refocus on design and construction of products and services based on accumulated knowledge of last 50 years of research + inexpensive computing power + telecommunications
– Understanding of the user’s needs is a critical factor
– Multidisciplinary, systems approach – the weather is likely only one factor in a complex management equation
– Combine understanding of the atmosphere with …
… Powerful, affordable computing technology decision support models can be very sophisticated
… Communication and analysis tools that allow vast amounts of information to be considered quickly
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John T. SnowDean, College of GeosciencesThe University of Oklahoma
Sarkeys Energy Center, Suite 710100 E. Boyd St.
Norman, Oklahoma 73019
Tel: 405-325-3101FAX: 405-325-3148
http://geosciences.ou.edu/
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