NBS is organized into four institutes that carry 

 out almost all its basic research.-* The Institute for 

 Basic Standards has facilities at Boulder as well 

 as others in Gaithersburg. The Quantum Physics 

 Division of the Institute for Basic Standards is the 

 NBS component of the Joint Institute for Labora- 

 tory Astrophysics (JILA), a collaborative venture 

 with the University of Colorado (CU) in Boulder. 

 JILA has operated under a Memorandum of Un- 

 derstanding between NBS and CU since the Insti- 

 tute was founded in 1962. JILA's staff now num- 

 bers 150 persons, of whom 18 are NBS personnel. 

 The total operating budget of JILA is approaching 

 $4 million, with roughly a third of that amount 

 provided by NBS. A chairman elected every 2 

 years by the senior scientists is the nearest ap- 

 proximation to a director. The JILA building was 

 built by the university, with roughly half the cost 

 funded by a grant from NSF and the remainder 

 provided by NBS through rent payments. NSF 

 now gives the university a substantial grant for 

 the research operation. The rationale is that both 

 fundamental standards and astrophysics need the 

 same sort of new knowledge from basic atomic 

 and molecular physics. The experiment has been 

 very successful.-'' 



As reported in the NBS section of Part I, each 

 institute of NBS prepares its program budget, 

 which is reviewed internally by the Director and 

 Executive Board. The whole program is reviewed 

 by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). 

 Although there appears to be much flexibility in 

 the NBS charter, there is not so much in practice. 

 An individual experiment can be started if the 

 experimenter can convince his superiors in his 

 institute that it is justified. A new Bureau initia- 

 tive is much harder to launch, and involves consid- 

 erable interplay with the Assistant Secretary for 

 Science and Technology, his staff, and the hierar- 

 chy up to and including the Office of Management 

 and Budget (OMB). On the other hand, several 

 tasks have been mandated by Congress in 15 laws 

 passed since 1965, frequently with no funds ap- 

 propriated to carry them out. Thus, a new initia- 

 tive flies in the face of unaccomplished mandated 

 work.'' 



The program of the National Maritime Adminis- 

 tration at its only laboratory, the National Mari- 



■^As this report goes to press, the Bureau is in the process of 

 a major reorganization, which may do away with the insti- 

 tutes. 



■^An Evaluative Report on the Joint Institute for Laboratory 

 Astrophysics, pp. 55-60; An Evaluative Report on the Institute 

 for Basic Standards by the National Research Council, NAS. 

 1977; Communication. Chairman of JILA to NSB staff, Sep- 

 tember 1977. 



^NBS Visiting Committee; see review by Kilata. G.B.. in 

 Science. 197, pp. 968-970. 



time Research Center in Kings Point, N.Y., does 

 not involve basic research to a significant degree. 



Department of Defense 



The Department of Defense (DOD) reports 36 

 percent of its $247.9 million basic research as intra- 

 mural in FY 1977. The consistency of intramural 

 perforn»nce among the services seems significant: 

 Army 39 percent. Navy 38 percent. Air Force 39 

 percent. "Other DOD agencies" (presumably the 

 Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency 

 (DARPA)with no laboratories, the Defense Nuclear 

 Agency with its Armed Forces Radiobiology Re- 

 search Institute ( AFRRI), and the Secretary's Insti- 

 tute for Defense Analyses (IDA)) report a 14 percent 

 intramural figure. AFRRI is located on the grounds 

 of the National Naval Medical Center (NNMC) in 

 Bethesda, Md. The Director is an officer of one of 

 the services, the billet being rotated among them. 

 Research staff includes both uniformed and civilian 

 professional scientists. The program is directed by a 

 board consisting of the surgeons-general of the three 

 services, but there is considerable flexibility to fol- 

 low new and promising leads as long as the work 

 remains within the mission. IDA is an advisory body 

 run as an FFRDC. 



Army 



The Army's basic research program is estimat- 

 ed at $40.1 million for 1977, 39 percent of which 

 is intramural. The Army has 32 Government-op- 

 erated R&D laboratories/facilities and no 

 FFRDC's. The medical laboratories are headed by 

 officers of the Army Medical Corps and are 

 staffed by both military and civilian personnel, the 

 preponderance of the professionals being military. 

 Programs are determined basically by three pro- 

 gram managers under the Medical R&D Com- 

 mand on the basis of a Science and Technology 

 Objectives Guide (STOG) from the Army Staff. 

 The three research fields are: (1) potential or real 

 hazards to personnel associated with the opera- 

 tion of military hardware; (2) diseases and other 

 natural hazards of potential operating areas; and 

 (3) medical/clinical techniques for treatment of 

 patients. The managers assign tasks to appropriate 

 laboratories. A laboratory can do basic research 

 needed to support an assigned task, but usually 

 checks back with the program manager before 

 doing so in order to avoid duplication. 



The other Army laboratorie:; come under the 

 Army Material Development and Readiness 

 Command (DARCOM), where the decision is 

 made as to whether a given laboratory will be 

 under a civilian director with a military deputy or 



BASIC RESEARCH IN AGENCY LABORATORIES AND FEDERALLY FUNDED RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTERS 243 



