CHAPTER XIII 



THE CONTRACT 



T„ 



.HE decision that NDRC and OSRD would not operate lab- 

 oratories directly made it imperative to find a form of contract which 

 would permit the achievement of their objectives. That part of the pro- 

 gram carried on in the laboratories of other Government agencies occa- 

 sioned no difficulty on this score; for with the assistance of the Bureau of 

 the Budget, a simple procedure was worked out for the transfer of OSRD 

 funds to those agencies, and the supervision of expenditures was a func- 

 tion of the appropriate officers of the transferee agencies. The order of the 

 Council of National Defense and later the executive order establishing 

 OSRD clearly contemplated the use of contracts in all other cases. 



A check of Army and Navy contract forms failed to disclose any which 

 promised to be satisfactory. For the most part they were aimed at pro- 

 curement or production rather than research; and through the years they 

 had become encrusted with layers of requirements designed to establish 

 standardized Army or Navy practices. It would have been impossible for 

 most academic institutions to work satisfactorily under them, and it would 

 have been difficult for NDRC to build up a staff to administer them if they 

 were adopted. What was needed was a contract which would combine a 

 maximum freedom for the exercise of scientific imagination on NDRC 

 problems with those safeguards necessary for the expenditure of public 

 funds. Stewart, as Secretary, was given the responsibility for recommend- 

 ing an appropriate contract form. 



Contracts for Research and Development 



The contract form adopted by NDRC at its meeting on August 29, 1940, 

 was largely the work of Oscar S. Cox, Assistant to the General Counsel of 

 the Treasury Department, who had been assigned to assist the Committee 

 in legal matters. The performance clause was a relatively simple provision. 

 The contractor agreed to conduct studies and experimental investigations 

 in connection with a given problem and to make a final report of his find- 

 ings and conclusions to the Committee by a specified date. This clause was 

 deliberately made flexible in order that the contractor would not be ham- 

 pered in the details of the work which he was to perform. The objective 

 was stated in general terms; no attempt was made to dictate the method 

 of handling the problem. 



