View all text of Chapter 121 [§ 9701 - § 9712]
§ 9709. National Weather Service hydrologic research fellowship program
(a) DefinitionsIn this section:
(1) Assistant Administrator
(2) Decision support services
(3) Institution of higher education
(4) NOAA line officesThe term “NOAA line offices” means the following offices of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration:
(A) The National Ocean Service.
(B) The National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service.
(C) The National Marine Fisheries Service.
(D) The Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research.
(E) The Office of Marine and Aviation Operations.
(b) Hydrologic research fellowship program
(1) Establishment
(2) Qualified individualFor purposes of this section, a qualified individual is an individual who is—
(A) a citizen of the United States; and
(B) enrolled in a research-based graduate program, at an institution of higher education, in a field that advances the research priorities developed by the Assistant Administrator under paragraph (7), such as—
(i) hydrology;
(ii) earth sciences;
(iii) atmospheric sciences;
(iv) computer sciences;
(v) engineering;
(vi) environmental sciences;
(vii) geosciences;
(viii) urban planning; or
(ix) related social sciences.
(3) Award guidelines
(4) Selection preference
(5) Placement
(6) Fellowship term
(7) Fellowship research prioritiesThe Assistant Administrator, in consultation with representatives from the NOAA line offices, the United States Geological Survey, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the Army Corps of Engineers, as appropriate, shall develop and publish priorities for the conduct of research by fellows, which may include the following:
(A) Advance the collaborative development of a flexible community-based water resources modeling system.
(B) Apply artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities to advance existing hydrologic modeling capabilities.
(C) Support the evolution and integration of hydrologic modeling within an Earth Systems Modeling Framework.
(D) Improve visualizations of hydrologic model outputs.
(E) Advance the state of coupled freshwater and salt water modeling and forecasting capabilities.
(F) Advance understanding and process representation of water quality parameters.
(G) Advance the assimilation of in-situ and remotely sensed observations and data.
(H) Support the integration of social science to advance decision support services.
(I) Develop methods to study groundwater sustainability and estimate the efficiency of recharge management.
(c) Direct hiring
(1) AuthorityDuring fiscal year 2022 and any fiscal year thereafter, the head of any Federal agency may appoint, without regard to the provisions of subchapter I of chapter 33 of title 5, other than sections 3303 and 3328 of that title, to a position with the Federal agency a recipient of a fellowship under the program who—
(A) earned a degree from a program described in subsection (b)(2)(B);
(B) successfully fulfilled the requirements of the fellowship within the executive branch of the Federal Government; and
(C) meets qualification standards established by the Office of Personnel Management.
(2) Exercise of authority
(Pub. L. 117–316, § 14, Dec. 27, 2022, 136 Stat. 4415.)