194 ORGANIZING SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH FOR WAR 



sents the judgment of OSRD as to the best type of research and devel- 

 opment contract, Form looi is printed in full in the appendix.* The text 

 as printed there should be consulted in connection with the comments 

 which follow. The comments single out certain provisions of the contract 

 for the mention of points not apparent from the reading of the text. Sev- 

 eral articles form the burden of discussion in later chapters, and no at- 

 tempt will be made here to anticipate that discussion. 



The reference numbers in the upper right hand corner of the first page 

 of the contract were for convenience. At the time contracts were recom- 

 mended by NDRC or CMR, a separate symbol number was assigned by 

 the contract section to each recommendation, which served to identify it 

 until the contract was signed by both parties. After signature, contracts 

 were numbered in accordance with instructions of the General Accounting 

 Office. Contracts of the original NDRC were identified by the symbol 

 NDCrc (National Defense Council, research committee) followed by a 

 number representing the place of the particular contract in a numerical 

 series beginning with i. When OSRD was established as a part of the 

 Office for Emergency Management, the symbol was changed. OSRD 

 contracts recommended by the NDRC were placed in an OEMsr (Office 

 for Emergency Management, scientific research) series and those recom- 

 mended by the CMR in an OEMcmr series. Office of Field Service per- 

 sonal service contracts were assigned to an OEMfs series. 



The Preamble. As OSRD contractors almost invariably started work un- 

 der letters of intent which preceded the signing of contracts by weeks or 

 months, the preamble recognized that the effective date of the contract 

 (which determines the time before which reimbursement cannot be made) 

 might be different from the date of signature. The preamble also lays the 

 foundation for the "actual cost" provision of the contract, for the limited 

 accountabihty of the contractor for supplies and equipment purchased un- 

 der the contract, and (in the small number of cases where advance pay- 

 ments were authorized) for advance payments by making the finding which 

 is required by statute before such payments can be made. 



An innovation in the OSRD contracts was the provision for a Scientific 

 Officer. The first NDRC contracts required the contractor to follow the 

 instructions of the Contracting Officer or his authorized representative. 

 This was logical as the Contracting Officer was the then Chairman of 

 NDRC and acting in its name. The same language was continued under 

 OSRD contracts although the factual situation was quite different. By 

 delegation from the Director, the NDRC and the CMR had the respon- 

 sibility for supervision of the respective scientific programs and the Execu- 

 tive Secretary had the general responsibility for administration, including 



• See Appendix 2. 



