DEPARTMENT OF STATE 



BUREAU OF OCEANS AND INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL AND 



SCIENTIFIC AFFAIRS 



Submitted by Oswald H. Ganley, Deputy Assistant Secretary 



AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 



Submitted by Curtis Farrar, Assistant Administrator for Technical Assistance 



BUREAU OF OCEANS AND INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL 



AND SCIENTIFIC AFFAIRS 



State Department Mission 



The overall mission of the Department of State 

 is the conduct of the Nation's foreign affairs and 

 the coordination of its foreign policy. 



Definition of Basic Research 



The Department has no official definition of ba- 

 sic research. The External Research Office of its 

 Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) sug- 

 gests the following distinctions among types of 

 research: 



1 . Applied research 



a) Policy research, which identifies and 

 weighs policy options and sometimes is 

 used to make policy recommendations. 



b) Policy-related research, which is used to 

 examine situations, forces, factors, 

 trends, because they bear on identifiable 

 instances of future policy choices. 



2. Basic research 



Its purposes are to advance and order data, 

 explanation, methods in fields of knowledge 



(the sciences and the humanities, disciplinary 

 and multidisciplinary) which are selected 

 because they illuminate matters that in the 

 future will affect unspecified policy choices. 

 All research carried out by the Department at 

 first hand is applied research. On March 10, 1977, 

 the Bureau of Oceans and International Environ- 

 mental and Scientific Affairs answered a request 

 by the National Science Foundation, which re- 

 quires data for its Annual Survey of Federal Funds 

 for Research. Development and Other Scientific 

 Activities. That survey lists no basic research ex- 

 penditures for the Department in FY 1976. Applied 

 research and development expenditures amounted 

 to $1,61 1,000. 



Role of Basic Research 



Lack of internal basic research activity in no 

 way implies a lack of concern. The Department 

 supports secondarily, has a need for, and benefits 

 from basic research. Its business — in addition to a 

 close dependence upon progress in the social sci- 

 ences — increasingly involves issues and policies 

 inextricably associated with developments in the 



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