Part III - Challenges, Issues and Future UCAR Activities

1.1There was considerable agreement about the need for atmospheric sciences to both increase basic knowledge and to serve society. In your view, how should research priorities and directions primarily be determined? (Please rate on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the most important.)

	1	2	3	4	5	6
1		1	2	3	4	5
2	Based largely on the intuition, interests and initiative of individual scientists	27 25.47%	59 27.7%	147 30.69%	220 38.06%	147 33.41%
3	Based on the greatest needs of society	23 21.7%	26 12.21%	88 18.37%	211 36.51%	248 56.36%
4	Based on the needs and priorities of funding agencies	52 49.06%	121 56.81%	235 49.06%	141 24.39%	31 7.05%
5	Other	4 3.77%	7 3.29%	9 1.88%	6 1.04%	14 3.18%


Total responses:	602

* Sequence of numbers in a cell:
Count
Column percent

1.2How do you think the research priorities and directions are actually being determined at present? (Please rate on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the most important.)

	1	2	3	4	5	6
1		1	2	3	4	5
2	Based largely on the intuition, interests and initiative of individual scientists	40 40.0%	83 35.32%	160 34.56%	179 38.09%	90 22.0%
3	Based on the greatest needs of society	34 34.0%	130 55.32%	224 48.38%	116 24.68%	39 9.54%
4	Based on the needs and priorities of funding agencies	22 22.0%	17 7.23%	71 15.33%	166 35.32%	273 66.75%
5	Other	4 4.0%	5 2.13%	8 1.73%	9 1.91%	7 1.71%


Total responses:	568

* Sequence of numbers in a cell:
Count
Column percent

2.1Should the present level and quality of interdisciplinary research in the atmospheric sciences be increased?

Option	Count	Percent
1. Yes	408	68.69%
2. No	22	3.7%
3. Stay at the same level	91	15.32%
4. Don't know or not sure	73	12.29%
Total	594	100%

Median:	1.0	Minimum value:	1
Total responses:	594	Maximum value:	4

2.2Is the academic community (including UCAR) organized adequately to carry out interdisciplinary research?

Option	Count	Percent
1. Yes	186	31.31%
2. No	153	25.76%
3. Don't know or not sure	255	42.93%
Total	594	100%

Median:	2.0	Minimum value:	1
Total responses:	594	Maximum value:	3

2.3Are the funding agencies organized adequately to support interdisciplinary research?

Option	Count	Percent
1. Yes	86	14.5%
2. No	259	43.68%
3. Don't know or not sure	248	41.82%
Total	593	100%

Median:	2.0	Minimum value:	1
Total responses:	593	Maximum value:	3

2.4How far should UCAR/NCAR go toward interdisciplinary research?

Option	Count	Percent
1. Too much, reduce a lot	7	1.28%
2. Reduce somewhat	25	4.55%
3. OK as is	174	31.69%
4. Increase somewhat	276	50.27%
5. Increase a lot	67	12.2%
Total	549	100%

Median:	4.0	Minimum value:	1
Total responses:	549	Maximum value:	5

3.1Do the atmospheric sciences attract and keep the best and brightest graduate students?

Option	Count	Percent
1. Yes	147	24.79%
2. No	193	32.55%
3. Don't know or not sure	253	42.66%
Total	593	100%

Median:	2.0	Minimum value:	1
Total responses:	593	Maximum value:	3

3.3Are you aware of the UCAR student recruiting website, Discovering the Atmospheric Sciences?

Option	Count	Percent
1. Yes	86	14.65%
2. No	501	85.35%
Total	587	100%

Median:	2.0	Minimum value:	1
Total responses:	587	Maximum value:	2

3.4If yes, do you think it is useful?

Option	Count	Percent
1. Yes	78	42.39%
2. No	8	4.35%
3. Not sure	98	53.26%
Total	184	100%

Median:	3.0	Minimum value:	1
Total responses:	184	Maximum value:	3

3.5Are you aware of the GEO Forum held in Washington in March 2004 and designed to attract graduate students into the geosciences?

Option	Count	Percent
1. Yes	80	13.91%
2. No	495	86.09%
Total	575	100%

Median:	2.0	Minimum value:	1
Total responses:	575	Maximum value:	2

3.6If yes, do you think similar forums should be carried out in the future in different parts of the country?

Option	Count	Percent
1. Yes	94	39.0%
2. No	13	5.39%
3. Not sure	134	55.6%
Total	241	100%

Median:	3.0	Minimum value:	1
Total responses:	241	Maximum value:	3

4.1Some members of the community have expressed concern that there is not enough effort in the universities being devoted to the development of instrumentation or to education on the sources and use of observational data. What is your estimate of the degree of this problem?

Option	Count	Percent
1. A significant problem	230	41.59%
2. A minor problem	277	50.09%
3. Not a problem	46	8.32%
Total	553	100%

Median:	2.0	Minimum value:	1
Total responses:	553	Maximum value:	3

4.3More generally, is the distribution of research effort, at UCAR and in the universities, appropriately divided among field research, modeling, theory, and laboratory work?

Option	Count	Percent
1. Yes	335	67.81%
2. No	159	32.19%
Total	494	100%

Median:	1.0	Minimum value:	1
Total responses:	494	Maximum value:	2

5.1Do you personally collaborate or work with the private sector?

Option	Count	Percent
1. Yes	177	31.16%
2. No	391	68.84%
Total	568	100%

Median:	2.0	Minimum value:	1
Total responses:	568	Maximum value:	2

5.2On a scale of 1-5, with 5 being the highest, how would you rate the present quality of interactions among these sectors?

	1	2	3	4	5	6
1		1	2	3	4	5
2	Academic-government	8 8.42%	46 14.84%	160 29.68%	208 53.75%	75 70.75%
3	Academic-private sector	41 43.16%	157 50.65%	186 34.51%	81 20.93%	8 7.55%
4	Government-private sector	46 48.42%	107 34.52%	193 35.81%	98 25.32%	23 21.7%


Total responses:	501

* Sequence of numbers in a cell:
Count
Column percent

7.2What additional or increased areas of service to the community should UCAR consider? (Please check all that apply.)

Option	Count	Percent
1. Observational facilities	171	9.15%
2. Computational facilities	153	8.19%
3. Instrumentation	126	6.74%
4. Community models	222	11.88%
5. Data sets or data streams	258	13.8%
6. Educational and/or training materials	209	11.18%
7. Support for field programs (planning, logistics, operations, and data management)	127	6.8%
8. Advocacy on behalf of community priorities	112	5.99%
9. Provision of real-time data to universities	174	9.31%
10. Community workshops on topics of interest	183	9.79%
11. Help with recruiting of graduate students	109	5.83%
12. None of the above	12	0.64%
13. Other (please list):	13	0.7%
Total	1869	100%

Median:	6.0	Minimum value:	1
Total responses:	462	Maximum value:	13

7.3Which of the following activities would you like to participate in? (Please check all that apply.)

Option	Count	Percent
1. Governance (Advisory committees, Member Committees, Trustees, reviewer)	116	9.52%
2. Collaboration with UCAR scientists, educators or other staff.	302	24.79%
3. Participation in UCAR educational activities	158	12.97%
4. User of UCAR observational facilities	139	11.41%
5. User of UCAR computational facilities	177	14.53%
6. User of UCAR community models	274	22.5%
7. None of the above	48	3.94%
8. Other:	4	0.33%
Total	1218	100%

Median:	4.0	Minimum value:	1
Total responses:	481	Maximum value:	8