volves any of the natural or social sciences. While only major universities 

 or combinations of universities qualify for institutional support under the 

 Foundation's criteria, any institution, laboratory, or public or private agency 

 may qualify for project support. The principal purpose of Sea Grant project 

 support is to enlist specific competence wherever it is found, in inland insti- 

 tutions as well as in those with access to salt water or the Great Lakes. 



A third program, the coherent project support program, is a middle- 

 ground hybrid of the other two. It is multidisciplinary in scope, composed 

 of several subprojects directed to a common objective or related to a com- 

 mon theme, and provides means for (1) encouraging institutions with a 

 strong core of marine competence and growth potential to work toward Sea 

 Grant institutional status; and (2) bringing into the Sea Grant Program in- 

 stitutions with high quality but specialized competence which do not meet 

 the criteria for institutional support. In the case of all three programs, Fed- 

 eral support is limited to two-thirds of the total cost, and certain restrictions, 

 especially on capital investment for ships and laboratories, are imposed. 



Program Planning and Policy Development 



To implement the Sea Grant Act at the working level, the National 

 Science Foundation created an Office of Sea Grant Programs. Assisting this 

 Office are two nongovernmental, technical advisory panels. Some 50 

 specialists, representing a cross section of marine interests and institutions, 

 participate in a Proposal Review Panel for Sea Grant Projects operating 

 through task teams which review individual proposals. In addition, 12 

 eminent representatives from academia and industry serve on the Sea Grant 

 Institutional Support Panel and, by virtue of their broad competence, are 

 called upon to provide general program guidance to the Foundation. 



Maximizing opportunities and benefits from a program as broad and as 

 fiexible as Sea Grant requires that it be sensitive and continually attuned 

 to evolving national needs. This, in turn, requires the existence of explicit 

 policies and operating guidelines for implementing and conducting the pro- 

 gram. The Sea Grant Act provides for this by directing the Marine Sciences 

 Council to advise the Foundation with respect to program policies and opera- 

 tions — and, further, to submit an annual status report to the Congress. 

 Under procedures agreed to by the Foundation and Council, policy state- 

 ments and position papers are developed by the NSF and transmitted to the 

 Council for review, advice and comment. The Council's consultant panels 

 and its Committee for Policy Review act as reviewing bodies, with the latter 

 also serving as a mechanism for obtaining formal departmental and agency 

 concurrences and advice. After agreement is reached between the Council 

 and the Foundation, the final step before implementation is to solicit the a|> 

 proval of the NSF's National Science Board. 



Since the beginning of the program, a number of provisional policies 

 and general guidelines have been developed under this arrangement and 

 published in documents prepared both by the Foundation ^ and the Council." 



^National Sea Grant Program — Suggestions for Submission of Proposals; National 

 Science Foundation, September 1967. 



" First, second and third annual reports, prepared by the Marine ^c'ences Council 

 and transmitted by the President to Congress, on "Marine Science Affairs," February 

 1967, March 1968 and January 1969. 



98 



