The NCOF Partners are:
Strategic Priorities for NCOF
The key activities for NCOF will be to:
1. Assess the Value of Existing and Potential Products and Services
We will establish and then maintain:
- baseline descriptions of our products, with assessments of their scientific accuracy and their current value to users
- priorities to improve the value of our products to users
2. Improve the Value of our Products and Services
We will:
- pursue a programme of improvements based on user priorities and scientific opportunities
- improve efficiency by consolidating our operational work on a smaller number of readily accessible modelling systems
- regularly review and upgrade the scientific and technological basis of our systems to ensure that they are of a world-class standard
3. Improve Internal Communication and Coordination
We will:
- clarify the roles, responsibilities and interfaces involved in the development, generation and exploitation of ocean forecasts within the UK
- generate a common sense of purpose within NCOF
- improve internal access to and sharing of resources
- assist (and when necessary lead) regional coordination of ocean forecasting in Europe
These strategic priorities have been chosen to:
- Address key issues – so that in 2-3 year's time we will have made substantial progress on them
- Set priorities – guiding everyone on what to do on a day-to-day basis
- Be easy to understand and remember– so it is short, simple and positive
- Give a common sense of purpose to everyone in NCOF
- Help everyone in NCOF to tell people outside what our aims are
- Cover all of the things we should be doing
Why Assessment and Explanation of Value is given Highest Prominence
In common with other groups internationally, we do not have clear summaries of the accuracy of our present products. There are no summaries of the uses that are made of the products and their value to our principal users. This is a major weakness in the international justification for operational oceanography. A realistic and concrete basis on which we can build is a priority. The results must be published or recorded as a reference for future work.
Adequate assessments will not “happen” without co-ordination. Good quality scientific inputs, interactions with appropriate users and judgements of content will be needed. The work of the NCOF Stakeholder Group and related working groups fall naturally within this priority.
The assessments will highlight current weaknesses and areas where improvements are most needed and should form the basis for proposals for future development. When they are well-established they should be used to provide improved assessments of the direct value our users obtain from the real-time observing network.
Improving the exploitation of our capabilities by a wider range of government agencies and commercial service providers was one of the drivers for the formation of NCOF.
Improving the Value of our Products and Services
Development of our scientific and technical capabilities has been our main focus historically and will probably continue to be the priority on which most staff time is spent. In future the assessments of value established in the first set of activities with the assistance of our stakeholders should feed into the priorities for development and the work should be more clearly driven by the goal of improving the value of our products and services.
Completion of the transition to NEMO is a priority at the Met Office, NOCS, ESSC and PML and part of the POL programme. Transition of the balance of resources from the deep ocean towards the shelf-seas is a priority for the Met Office. Consolidation of the wave modelling on fewer systems is also a priority. We will develop new products and services as well as improving the quality of existing ones.
Improving Internal Communication and Coordination
NCOF has been established only relatively recently. The scope of the responsibilities of the groups within NCOF needs to be clarified further to help us to be efficient and effective. The nature of the NCOF partnership and the partners that it should include also need to be understood more clearly.
NCOF is distributed across a number of institutes with different aims and cultures. Constructive collaboration will require a shared sense of purpose and understanding of the complementary roles of the partnering institutes.
There is currently a thrust to improve coordination of ocean forecasting services at a European level. This coordination between service providers is viewed as internal here because it affects how rather than what services are delivered to stakeholders.
Members can view the NCOF Programme of Work (requires login), which sets out the programme areas and activities that will enable NCOF to meet these strategic priorities.
(Last Updated: 15-05-2008)