In order to address the ultimate goal of helping improve operational NWP, the Model Evaluation for Research Innovation Transition (MERIT) was established by the DTC as a testing framework to assess and improve upon shortcomings in operational models. This testing framework is made available to NCEP's Environmental Modeling Center (EMC) to test their model developments and also allows for community contributions to be readily tested. Providing the research and operational communities with an end-to-end framework will streamline the testing process to accelerate more effective and efficient physics development, encourage community engagement, and provide an infrastructure that supports R2O and O2R.

The MERIT testing framework includes running the Finite-Volume Cubed-Sphere (FV3) system, post-processing model output, verifying model simulation, and plotting model output.