In order to contribute to achieving NOAA's mission, CSL collaborates extensively with other NOAA Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) Laboratories and Programs as well as other NOAA Line Offices.
NOAA Cooperative Institutes are academic and non-profit research institutions that demonstrate the highest level of performance and conduct research that supports NOAA's Mission Goals and Strategic Plan. The Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) was founded in 1967 as a joint endeavor of the University of Colorado and the NOAA laboratories in Boulder. Over the years CIRES has played a vital role in the local Federal-State venture involving the University and the NOAA laboratories in Boulder (including a longstanding and fruitful relationship with CSL). Over half of CSL's personnel are associated with CIRES, including students, postdoctoral associates, career scientists, engineers, and technical support staff.
A hallmark of CSL's research is the strong and extensive collaborative activities with other national and international research organizations, including universities, other Federal agencies, and the private sector. In addition to basic scientist-scientist collaborations, CSL has been involved in many jointly planned and conducted field campaigns, in which inter-organizational breadth was one of the key factors in carrying out the campaign. Several of these have involved a very advantageous, long-standing, and close working partnership with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
CSL's partnerships involve its stakeholders. CSL uses an "end-to-end" approach that embraces interactions with decision makers and stakeholders in its research endeavors—not only after the research but especially before the research. In this approach, CSL engages stakeholders to identify their most urgent questions, and as research progresses, CSL follows through to deliver the information in user friendly, policy-relevant formats.