Interview Instruments for a Human-Centered Evaluation of NOAA's Weather-Related Research Transition Process

As part of a human-centered evaluation of NOAA's weather-related research transition process, we developed three audience-specific semi-structured interview protocols for researchers, research transition staff, and National Weather Service (NWS) receiving offices. The protocols were designed to examine experiences across the research transition lifecycle, including how operational needs are identified, how researchers and operational partners collaborate, how transition plans are developed and implemented, and where barriers and opportunities for improvement exist. Collectively, these protocols were used to explore the successes and challenges of past research transition processes and practices while identifying opportunities to strengthen the transition of research into operations.

The collection includes three interview protocols tailored to key user groups involved in the research transition process:

• Researchers – to understand experiences developing operationally relevant research, engaging with transition partners, and navigating the transition process.
• Research Transition Staff – to explore transition management practices, coordination mechanisms, governance, and organizational challenges that influence successful research transitions.
• NWS Receiving Offices – to examine how operational offices identify needs, evaluate emerging capabilities, participate in transition activities, and integrate new research into operations.

Each protocol consists of a common set of core questions alongside user-specific questions and probes designed to elicit detailed perspectives on transition processes, organizational roles, communication pathways, decision-making, and opportunities for improvement.

These materials are provided to support transparency, reproducibility, and future research on research-to-operations (R2O), operations-to-research (O2R), and broader research transition processes. Researchers are welcome to adapt these protocols for related studies with appropriate attribution.