NSF NCAR · Research Applications Laboratory·working package — July 2026

Software opportunities under funding pressure

Where NCAR software can lead — a working package

A strategy scan, a fundable-project matrix, a funding pitch, and two working prototypes — assembled to explore where a software-focused RAL team can build distinctive, externally-fundable tools as core NSF support comes under pressure.

Strategy

Read the case

The argument, the evidence, and ten ranked project ideas you can re-weight yourself.

Presenter notes handout → — the deck's per-slide talking points, print-ready.

Working prototypes

Try the tools

Four self-contained, browser-native prototypes that make hazard, design, and computing science legible — no install, no server, runs offline.

Deep dives

The project write-ups

Per-idea working documents: what to build (scope, architecture, phasing, risks) and how to position & fund it. Markdown — download or open as text.

Research

An honest investigation

Can fast neural weather models be made to handle 100-year storms? An ML-expert agenda, a devil's-advocate teardown, and the reconciled verdict.

The finding, in one line: for genuinely unprecedented events the honest lever isn't retraining the emulator — it's a fast ML model that knows when it's out of its depth and hands off to physics, with the handoff verified. Which is exactly the trusted-referee thesis, applied.

How to read this package. Start with the briefing for the argument and the ranking, skim the deck for the top bet, then open the two prototypes to see the "impact coupling" and "hazard visualization" ideas made real. The prototypes are deliberately simplified, illustrative tools — not operational forecasts. Everything here is a read-only research exploration compiled from public sources; verify institutional specifics internally before external use.