about half of ERDA's basic research was in high- 

 energy physics, a large program run by a very small 

 staff. 



Another factor was ERDA's extensive use of 

 FFRDC's, which employ over 56,000 contractor 

 personnel compared with less than 1,000 employ- 

 ees in the seven in-house laboratories. Two of the 

 seven were formerly AEC laboratories and do no 

 basic research. The other five were Bureau of 

 Mines laboratories. Although they do some re- 

 search that may be considered basic, it has not been 

 reported as such because it may not fit the NSF defi- 

 nition; the research is principally on fossil fuels and 

 combustion. These five, known as Energy Research 

 Centers (ERC's) reported to the Assistant Adminis- 

 trator for Fossil Fuels, who selected their directors 

 as vacancies occurred. Some ERC's have played 

 "lead center" roles for which they have been funded 

 at a predetermined level, including the basic re- 

 search component. The rest of their funding has 

 been handled on the basis of their annual project 

 proposals, reviewed by the division having cogni- 

 zance. The division could approve, reject, or revise a 

 proposal, the latter procedure being by direct nego- 

 tiation between division and center. The proposals 

 as finally approved made up the budget request, 

 which was then coordinated with the funds availa- 

 ble. All details did not have to be spelled out in the 

 proposals; individual basic research tasks in support 

 of an approved objective were undertaken at the 

 center director's initiative as long as the tasks were 

 appropriate and could be accomplished within the 

 approved funding level. New ideas occurring during 

 the year could be exploited only with the cognizant 

 division's approval and with funds provided by that 

 division. Funds already approved for a center could 

 not be withdrawn by a division without the Assistant 

 Administrator's approval. 



There were 20 FFRDC's listed for ERDA. They 

 are operated by industry, universities, consortia 

 of universities, and one by Battelle Memorial In- 

 stitute, a nonprofit institution. Some are multipur- 

 pose, with everything from basic research to fab- 

 rication of prototypes and production of radioiso- 

 topes; others are single-purpose. Basic research is 

 conducted under all these types of management. 

 Typical management contracts run 5 years and 

 may be renewed repeatedly. 



One of the more involved situations is that of 

 Argonne National Laboratory, a multipurpose 

 laboratory doing basic and applied research in 

 many fields as well as development and other 

 tasks. It is operated by the University of Chicago 

 under the guidance of Argonne Universities Asso- 

 ciation (AUA), a nonprofit corporation that is a 

 membership consortium of 26 universities, includ- 

 ing the University of Chicago. A three-way con- 

 tract joined ERDA, AUA, and the University in 



248 



this endeavor. A very different example is the 

 Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC), a sin- 

 gle-purpose laboratory doing basic research in high- 

 energy physics under a contract between Stanford 

 University and ERDA. 



For almost every ERDA FFRDC, contract lan- 

 guage states that the facilities belong to ERDA and 

 the contractor hires the employees, paying them 

 with ERDA funds. ERDA exerci.ses supervision 

 over the rate of pay. The contractor selects the labo- 

 ratory director but the selection must have ERDA 

 approval. The contractor's own staff administering 

 the contract is paid by the contractor, and the con- 

 tract provides for a management allowance or fee to 

 cover such expenses. 



This whole arrangement has enabled the contrac- 

 tor to maintain a suitable environment for research 

 and to compete on an approximately equal basis with 

 universities and industry for high-quality scientific 

 staff. Basic research programs have been planned by 

 the laboratory starting about 2 years in advance, with 

 many details only generalized. Each cognizant divi- 

 sion at ERDA dealt with the requests in its field, 

 apportioning available funds. Basic research pro- 

 grams have remained somewhat general even when 

 finally approved, and laboratory directors have had 

 considerable discretion within a program, although 

 they could not shift funds between programs. 



in the case of the Fermi National Accelerator 

 Laboratory (FERMILAB), a single-purpose labo- 

 ratory operated by Universities Research Associa- 

 tion (URA), a consortium of 53 universities, most 

 of the research (high-energy physics) is done by 

 visitors who are separately funded by ERDA, 

 NSF, their home institution, or even another 

 country. The laboratory physicists operate the 

 400-500 GeV proton synchrotron, work on im- 

 provements to the instrument, provide technical 

 services to the visitors, and participate in the re- 

 search program to the extent that they perform 

 about 15 percent of it. URA is charged by its 

 member universities and by ERDA with managing 

 this expensive facility in an equitable manner for 

 the benefit of the country. 



To this end, the Director has appointed a com- 

 mittee of leading high-energy physicists, almost 

 all from outside the laboratory, to review all pro- 

 posals for research to be done there. An indepen- 

 dent organization of those interested in the use of 

 the facility, the Fermilab Users Organization, as- 

 sists in selecting the members of this committee, 

 which assigns a period of running time, typically a 

 few hundred hours, and a place in the schedule to 

 each experiment they recommend for approval. A 

 typical experimental group will have members 

 from several institutions, one of which may be 

 Fermilab. The Director normally adheres to the 

 recommendations as closely as practicable, al- 



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



