Committee 

 Affairs 



on International Environmental 



a. Subcommittee on Stratospheric 

 Pollution 



b. Task Force II (deals with Unit- 

 ed Nations Environment Pro- 

 gram) 



3. Interdepartmental Committee for Atmospheric 

 Sciences 



a. Panel on the Inadvertent Modi- 

 fication of Weather and Cli- 

 mate 



b. Climate Program Plan Drafting 

 Group 



c. Ad Hoc Group to Outline a 

 National Plan for Upper At- 

 mosphere R&D 



4. Federal Committee for Meteorological Serv- 

 ices and Supporting Research 



a. Interdepartmental Committee 

 for World Weather Programs 



b. Interdepartmental Committee 

 for Applied Meteorological 

 Services 



c. Interagency Committee for 

 World Weather Programs 



d. Joint Committee for Space 

 Environment Forecasting 



e. Working Group on Atmospher- 

 ic Research Processing Centers 



f. Working Group for Monitor- 

 ing the Stratosphere 



5. Interdepartmental Board for the Cooperation 

 of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

 Administration with the Department of De- 

 fense 



6. Interagency Committee for Marine Environ- 

 mental Prediction 



Federal Interagency Task Force on Inadver- 

 tent Modification of the Stratosphere 



a. Subcommittee on Biological 

 and Climatic Effects Research 

 Biological and Climatic Effects Research Poli- 

 cy Group 



DOC-NASA Satellite Program Review Board 

 Interagency Committee on Water Resources 

 Research 



Subcommittee on Hydrologic Research of the 

 NOAA/USGS Committee on Hydrology 

 Landsat Interagency Decision Team 

 Interagency Arctic Research Coordination 

 Committee 



NASA Climate Plan User Working Group 

 NASA Climate Plan Science Working Group 



7. 



8. 



9 



10 



II 



12 

 13 



14 



15 



Supplementing the above formal mechanisms 

 there is a large number of information relation- 

 ships between NOAA and research groups in 



the federal agencies, in addition to the inter- 

 agency information transfer mechanisms such 

 as the National Technical Information Service 

 (NTIS) and the Smithsonian Science Informa- 

 tion Exchange (SSIE). 



The Environmental Data Service has input to 

 interagency and international bodies supporting 

 atmospheric and marine research programs. In 

 this capacity, data exchange agreements are 

 negotiated. In the Coastal Zone Management 

 program, the basic mechanisms for coordina- 

 tion with other agencies is the review and 

 comment process. 



Some agencies, such as the State Department's 

 Bureau of Oceans and International Environmen- 

 tal and Scientific Affairs (OES) and the Agency 

 for International Development (AID), have res- 

 ponsibilities for international scientific activities 

 and use both formal and informal mechanisms to 

 achieve coordination and flow of information. 

 OES is responsible for a number of science and 

 technology agreements with foreign countries and 

 has established a number of interagency bilateral 

 working agreements to facilitate work on different 

 projects. AID uses interagency service agree- 

 ments in connection with its scientific activities; it 

 also has formal agreements with foreign countries 

 and with international agencies. 



Formal interagency information transfer me- 

 chanisms include the National Technical Informa- 

 tion Service (NTIS) in the Department of Com- 

 merce and the Smithsonian Science Information 

 Exchange (SSIE). NTIS was established "to sim- 

 plify and improve public access to Department of 

 Commerce publications and to data files and sci- 

 entific and technical reports produced by Federal 

 agencies and their contractors." SSIE is a pri- 

 mary source for information on research in pro- 

 gress; it collects, indexes, stores, and retrieves 

 information, on an annual basis, on about 125,000 

 Government and nongovernment research pro- 

 jects. 



The Lead Agency Concept 



The "lead agency" concept developed when 

 each of several agencies which were supporting 

 substantial program activities determined that 

 overall program improvement was possible if the 

 agency giving the greatest amount of support as- 

 sumed responsibility for interagency coordination, 

 generally through chairing a coordinating and poli- 

 cy committee or through some form of oversight. 

 The "lead agency" approach to coordination of 

 research projects appears to be effective in some 

 cases and of limited effectiveness in others. The 



300 



INTERAGENCY COORDINATION OF BASIC RESEARCH 



