About This Plan
This document is the strategic plan of the Research Applications Laboratory (RAL), one of five laboratories in the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). It describes RAL’s mission, vision, broad goals and priorities for the next ten years. This plan is used by RAL scientists and managers in the ongoing process of program development and provides the basis for more detailed program and budget decisions that occur on an annual basis.
In the process of creating this plan, RAL managers, scientists, engineers, and administrators participated in a series of NCAR-wide activities to establish the broader institutional goals and objectives for NCAR. This strategic plan continues and extends the previous plan written in 2000, incorporating new streams of information and guidance. It is well aligned with the strategic plans of NCAR and NSF; the more detailed description here complements those plans, and clearly shows how RAL contributes to the goals of the parent organizations. The plan builds on RAL’s demonstrated success in executing efficient procedures for technology transfer, on the experience of its staff over the past twenty-five years, and on advice provided by its Advisory Committee (see Section 7).
This plan is not meant to be a comprehensive description of the entirety of RAL projects and activities; rather, it attempts to show our overall direction, an overview of major ongoing efforts, and a description of emerging areas that are expected to grow in importance over the next five to ten years. Much more detailed descriptions of the items addressed here – and of many other RAL research, technology transfer, education, and service activities – can be found on the RAL web site and in the RAL Annual Report. While this plan is not comprehensive, it is, on the other hand, not written in the lean terms often associated with strategic plans. It may be regarded as our best statement of our strategic outlook – where we are trying to be in 5-10 years, given our vision, mission, and the environment in which we live and work – combined with an assessment of what the program will be accomplishing in the next few years based on what is being done today. To aid the reader, a list of acronym definitions is included at the end of the document.