which suggest promising directions for research in 

 areas of concern. Examples are conferences on 

 reading, teaching, writing, and organizational pro- 

 cesses in education described earHer. The re- 

 search grants announcements generally call for 

 proposals in a rather broadly defined area such as 

 reading comprehension, effective teaching strate- 

 gies taking into account the instructional setting, 

 and organizational processes in education. More 

 specific research suggestions from the conference 

 reports are included in announcements but are 

 generally not prescribed. Grants announcements 

 are subject to approval by the Director, and in 

 contrast with other forms of procurement, by 

 numerous units in the Office of the Secretary of 

 HEW. 



Proposals are reviewed by investigators from 

 outside NIE as well as by NIE staff, and final 

 decisions are made by the Director in response to 

 staff recommendations. Review criteria are gener- 

 ally as follows, with some variation from program 

 to program: 



• The significance of the proposed research for 

 American education, including the impor- 

 tance of the problem area from the standpoint 

 of basic knowledge on problems of American 

 education; and the likely magnitude of the 

 addition that will be made to knowledge if 

 the project is successful, including the gener- 

 alizability of the results. 



• The quality of the proposed research project, 

 including such considerations as the extent to 

 which the application exhibits thorough 

 knowledge of pertinent previous work and 

 relates the proposed research to it; the likeli- 

 hood of the success of the project; and the 

 adequacy of design, methodology, and instru- 

 mentation, where appropriate. 



• The qualifications of the principal investiga- 

 tor and other professional personnel, as evi- 

 denced by their experience and previous re- 

 search productivity: and the quality of the 

 discussion and analysis in the application. 



• The adequacy of the facilities and arrange- 

 ments available to the investigator to conduct 

 the proposed study. 



• The reasonableness of the budget for the 

 work to be done and the anticipated results. 



The normal maximum duration of projects is 

 three years, and funding is usually on a yearly 

 basis, subject to satisfactory progress and availa- 

 bility of funds. In some cases, NIE plans to con- 

 tinue grants competitions in a specific area; in 

 other cases, there will be only a single competi- 



tion. A continuing program in the rather broad area 

 of organizational processes in education has been 

 mentioned above under "School Capacity for 

 Problem Solving." A continuing, rotating study 

 group reviews proposals and prepares syntheses 

 of knowledge in the area. 



Unsolicited Proposals 



NIE accepts for consideration unsolicited pro- 

 posals for various sorts of projects, including ba- 

 sic research, that do not fit into any current re- 

 search grant competitions. Review is similar to 

 that for proposals in grant competitions, except 

 that proposals requesting less than $25,000 may 

 be supported without external review. 



R&D Centers and Regional Educational 

 Laboratories 



These institutions, described earlier, generally 

 carry out development and associated applied re- 

 search. However, some basic research is also 

 pursued, particularly in the R&D centers, which 

 are based in universities. 



New Institutions 



NIE has also created several new institutions 

 with specified lifetimes. Examples of such institu- 

 tions, which have been mentioned above, are: 



• Center for Study of Reading (University of 

 Illinois-Urbana and Bolt, Beranek, and 

 Newman) and the Institute for the Study of 

 Teaching (Michigan State University), which 

 were created through requests for proposals 

 (RFP's) derived in considerable part from 

 conferences on reading and teaching, respec- 

 tively. 



• Finance and Productivity Center (University 

 of Chicago), which was created through an 

 RFP calling for plans to develop a conceptual 

 framework and R&D agenda in educational 

 finance and productivity, to provide national 

 leadership in carrying out the agenda, and to 

 carry out selected portions of the agenda. 



RFP's are developed by NIE committees in- 

 volving persons from inside and outside the cogni- 

 zant group and are subject to approval by the 

 Director. Proposals are reviewed similarly, with 

 the addition of several reviewers from outside 

 NIE. 



As has been indicated, decisions as to what 

 mechanisms are to be used for support of basic 

 research are part of planning and budgeting. 



116 HEALTH, EDUCATION AND WELFARE 



