Have you ever heard of the Earth Prediction Innovation Center? More commonly known as EPIC, this initiative for Earth system modeling with initial funding from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and support from key partners is committed to improving the Unified Forecast System.
According to NOAA, “The Earth Prediction Innovation Center (EPIC) was created in response to a congressional initiative to accelerate the United State’s ability to make early, accurate, and communicable environmental predictions. It is designed to support, sustain, and foster collaborative work by participating members of the Unified Forecast System (UFS). Put more concisely, EPIC fuels and enables the UFS.”
What makes this program unique is its reliance on open innovation practices such as community innovation, modeling, and research to improve weather prediction models. We look forward to seeing how using these practices with a diverse group of innovators from the government, industry, and academia will increase innovation in the priority investment areas for EPIC.
Ensemble is always excited to see how our federal government is embracing open innovation practices to meet its needs and goals. As we have seen through programs such as NASA’s Break the Ice Lunar Challenge, NIDA’s Cause of Death Elucidated Challenge, and HRSA’s Promoting Pediatric Primary Prevention Challenge, and FAA’s Air Traffic Manager (ATM) UI Enhancements Project, harnessing the power of the crowd can help an organization meet its goals much faster and more cost-effective than traditional research and development making it an ideal tool for the federal government to have in their arsenal.
To learn more about EPIC: https://epic.noaa.gov/about-epic/epic-program-details/
To learn more about the projects mentioned in this blog check out our case studies!
