NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION 



NATIONAL SCIENCE BOARD 



WASHINGTON, D.C. 20550 



LETTER TO DIRECTORS OF INTRAMURAL GOVERNMENT LABORATORIES 



Currently the National Science Board is preparing its Eighth Annual 

 Report to the President and to the Congress. The report will concen- 

 trate on the circumstances which might affect the capacity of the 

 Nation to continue a strong position in science and technology. It 

 will attempt to identify and to study prospectively selected critical 

 problems developing in the operating research sectors namely, uni- 

 versity, industry, Government laboratories and independent research 

 institutes. The report is not as much concerned with dollar support 

 as with circumstances in the institutional, managerial or policy 

 environment which will influence the productivity of working scientists 

 and engineers. 



In order to identify critical problems for the Government laboratories, 

 the Committee on Eighth NSB Report earlier contacted Dr. Richard W. 

 Roberts, Chairman of the Committee on Federal Laboratories, and 

 asked him to express collective views on Government laboratories . 

 Subsequently, the Committee decided to contact individual directors 

 of research or vice presidents of research in university, industry, 

 and independent research laboratories. To be consistent, the Committee 

 has now expanded its inquiry to include individual directors of Govern- 

 ment laboratories and is writing to a selected group of thirty. 



The Committee would very much appreciate learning about the two most 

 critical issues/problems facing fundamental (long term, basic) research, 

 as you see it, in the near term future. "Near term future" means issues 

 currently emerging or seen-to-be-emerging in the next decade or so. 

 For example, as you look ahead, in your capacity as director of a 

 government laboratory what problems do you anticipate? What critical 

 issues/problems will condition scientific and technological research in 

 Government laboratories and will decrease its effectiveness unless properly 

 addressed? Would you please order your issues /problems "one" and "two" 

 and then provide a brief descriptive paragraph for each? Feel free to 

 propose resolutions or solutions. 



110 APPENDIX B 



