Unidata provided $100,000 funding (including overhead) for the 2006 Equipment Awards. The solicitation was first announced on 1/6/2006 and the deadline for submission was 3/24/2006. The awards panel met the afternoon of April 11 and the morning of April 12. The panel consisted of UCAR staff and Unidata Committee Members, and the overall quality and representational diversity of the committee this year was quite excellent.

The number of proposals submitted this year was rather small, with eight proposals to review totaling $142,152 before UCAR overhead, $189,220 including UCAR overhead. For the most part, the proposal quality and diversity this year was quite good. Only one proposal was unacceptable to the point that it did not warrant more than one round of review by the panel. Before the panel meeting in April, all of the proposals were sent to the panel for an initial evaluation and the preliminary results were tallied. At the meeting the proposals were reviewed and discussed in more detail, and the panel recommended full funding for four out of the eight proposals. The final funding recommendations are listed in the table below.

Special Consideration

This year special consideration was given to proposals submitted by investigators in new disciplines and departments outside of those traditionally active in the Unidata community (e.g., meteorology). The primary purpose of this focus was to give the broader Unidata community access to new tools and datasets that could be relevant to their teaching and research.

Funding Recommendations from 2006 Panel:

This year the panel discussed the possibility of appointing Usercom and Unidata representatives to each awardee to assist them with the implementation of their award, and to make sure their funded project is successful and relevant to the broader Unidata community. Mohan was very receptive to the idea, so when the acceptance letters were sent out each awardee was notified that they would be contacted by a representative after their award was in place.

Summary

• Paperwork to implement the awards was completed in late May, and UCAR Contracts is working with the each university's sponsored programs office to finalize the award process.
• Jo Hansen is working with the 2005 awardees to write newsletter articles about their experience with these awards.
• Overall we were pleased with the quality and quantity of proposals received, and feel that the processes for the RFP are going smoothly.
• The next award solicitation will be announced the first week of January, 2007. The date of the panel meeting will be determined as soon as the date of the next Usercom meeting is set.