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7.0   Management Response

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Recommendation 1

The ADM-MSC agrees with the recommendation.

Management Action

a & b) The MSC has undertaken the development of a documented Service Strategy.  A draft was completed in early November 2010 for internal consultation with various functions components of the WES program (R&D, monitoring, prediction and IM/IT).  The Service Strategy articulates goals and strategies along program activity priorities, which in turn will provide direction for science, monitoring and prediction development.

c) Engagement with staff on the Service Strategy began in November 2010 during a forum of service managers and staff, and will continue in a variety of forums and venues until the end of FY-10/11.  Communication of the Service Strategy across all functions will be undertaken once the document is completed and approved by the WES Board (March 2011).

d) The MSC has created program committees organized along business lines (public, marine, aviation, etc). The program committees will articulate MSC priorities for the various client groups following the overall roadmap of the Service Strategy. As part of the annual program-planning cycle, the committees will make recommendations to the DG of Weather and Environmental Prediction and Services (WEPS) for revisions and updates to the Service Strategy and any such revisions will be presented to the WES Board for adoption. Program committees have membership from all the functional areas and important enabling functions such as CIOB. Additionally, the WES DG Leads Committee will continue to have the responsibility for providing oversight and ensuring horizontality of all WES Board governance bodies.

Recommendation 2

The ADM-MSC agrees with the recommendation.

Management Action

When the national laboratories were initially established, specific actions were taken in an attempt to facilitate the effective transfer of science outputs into our operational (prediction) environment. These actions included:

a) Co-locating the national laboratories with the EC storm prediction centres and with other EC operational centres such as the Canadian Meteorological Centre (CMC) and the Canadian Meteorological Aviation Centre (CMAC). This co-location provides an opportunity for R&D to connect to our external service interfaces through the service delivery mechanisms at the operational centres.

b)  Establishing a cadre of managers working in the storm prediction centres to oversee training and science transfer activities, as well as to manage the involvement of operational meteorologists in research, development and implementation activities within the national labs.

c) Appointing a national manager of science transfer and training (STT), to ensure high standards of science validation and efficient and sustainable implementation practices, and to nationally coordinate activities,

d) Creating a Technology Transfer Advisory Committee (TTAC) to ensure that all aspects of science transfer projects, including well-defined and well-validated user requirements, are respected throughout the science transfer process.

Unfortunately, it appears that these actions were not sufficient to support an effective transfer of science outputs from the national laboratories into operations, owing to limited resources in key areas and the need to clarify governance.  As such, additional changes were made more recently which we believe will build on this infrastructure and, once fully implemented and with sufficient time to become part of our ongoing processes, will demonstrate the desired results. These changes include:

e) To further focus MSC resources on specific and high priority client needs, a series of signature projects was tabled, with each project assigned to a senior MSC manager for execution.

f) To support the integrated delivery of weather services from its interdependent functions, including weather research, the role of the WES DG Lead Committee was clarified and enhanced. The Committee comprises membership of all of the integrated WES functions and serves as a forum for priority setting and decision making. As such, all WES DG leads share responsibility around the WES results. The WES DG Lead Committee will address all over-arching and horizontal elements of the WES Programs, including the transfer of R&D into operations.   

g) In addition to the WES DG Lead Committee, WES has formed a Public Weather and Environmental Management Program (PWEMP) committee to ensure cohesion in national program delivery for the Weather Observations, Forecasts and Warnings Program (Program Activity Architecture sub-sub activity 2.1.1). It is an appropriate forum at which to discuss all aspects of the science-into-operations processes in support of Program 2.1 results.

h) To further strengthen the link between R&D and operations, the Meteorological and Environmental Predictions Innovation Committee (MEPIC) was created, co-chaired by the DG of ASTD and the DG of Weather and Environmental Operations (WEO).  Formal membership also includes senior representatives of the internal client committee, as well as the DG of WEPS (who represents the interests of the external user community).

We believe that these initiatives, when combined with existing infrastructure, will ensure users see the benefits of science investments in their daily operations. Monitoring the status of the signature projects and WES deliverables, as documented in meeting minutes from these key committees, will provide evidence of the degree to which this is achieved.

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