§9709 National Weather Service Hydrologic Research Fellowship Program

Summary

NOAA must set up a hydrologic research fellowship program to train qualified U.S. graduate students to work on water-related research. Assistant Administrator — the Assistant Administrator for Weather Services at NOAA. Decision support services — information and data that help water-resource decisions. Institution of higher education — means colleges and universities as defined in Title 20, section 1001. NOAA line offices — the National Ocean Service; the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service; the National Marine Fisheries Service; the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research; and the Office of Marine and Aviation Operations. Fellowships go to U.S. citizens in research-based graduate programs in fields such as hydrology, earth sciences, atmospheric sciences, computer sciences, engineering, environmental sciences, geosciences, urban planning, or related social sciences. The Assistant Administrator will set the rules, give hiring preference to applicants from historically Black colleges and universities and other minority-serving schools, and place fellows in federal jobs to work on published research priorities. Fellowships last up to 2 years. Priorities, made with input from NOAA offices, USGS, FEMA, and the Army Corps, include topics like community water modeling, AI/machine learning for models, integrating hydrology into Earth systems models, better visualizations, coupled fresh/saltwater forecasting, water quality, using in‑situ and satellite data, adding social science to decision support, and groundwater sustainability. Starting in fiscal year 2022, federal agencies may directly hire fellows who earned a qualifying degree, completed the fellowship in the executive branch, and meet OPM standards. Agencies must use that hire authority within 2 years after the fellow finishes.