UCAR enters bid process to retain NCAR contract

BOULDER – For the first time in 48 years, Boulder’s University Corporation for Atmospheric Research could face competition to manage the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

Boulder-based NCAR provides the research community access to high-performance computational and observational facilities, such as supercomputers, aircraft and radar to study the Earth’s atmospheric and geosciences processes.

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In 2006, the National Science Foundation opened NCAR’s five-year, $563-million contract to any bidder, public or private. It expects to make a decision by spring 2008.

The deadline for bid proposals was Feb. 9, 2007. NFS officials have declined to say who is vying for the contract or how many proposals have been received.

UCAR Director of Government Affairs Cindy Schmidt said the organization has submitted an application to continue managing NCAR.

UCAR is nonprofit corporation comprised of 71 research universities. Its contract to manage NCAR expires in September 2008. It also partners with NSF to manage additional atmospheric services, and educational and training programs under the UCAR Office of Programs name. That portion of funding is not up for bid this time around.

Schmidt said UCAR employs 1,254 people in Boulder. About 839 of those employees work at NCAR and 197 work at UCAR’s Office of Programs. That leaves 218 jobs that could be in jeopardy if UCAR loses the NCAR bid.

Schmidt said it would be a significant loss to Boulder and Colorado were UCAR to lose the bid. A new manager of NCAR could even decide to move the labs elsewhere, although Schmidt thinks that’s unlikely.

Schmidt is serving as the chair of the board of CO-LABS, the coalition effort to help increase awareness of Colorado’s federal labs. (See story, Page 1A.)

“If people don’t know what we have here in Colorado, then it makes it harder to protect them,” Schmidt said. “Last year, Wyoming was willing to put forth a lot of money to win the new NCAR supercomputer bid, and unfortunately Colorado wasn’t in the same situation financially to compete for the center.”

Contact David Clucas at 303-440-4950 or dclucas@bcbr.com.