38 



but did not waste incredibly precious resources that we need so 

 much for our research and our facihties. 



My main message, Mr. Chairman, is that the National Associa- 

 tion of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges appreciates 

 very much your commitment and your initiative to really plumb 

 these issues and to see what we can do about a serious problem, 

 which is the erosion of our facilities, which is a concern because the 

 research outcomes are still very vital to our Nation and we must 

 not forget that. We are very eager to work with you, members of 

 the subcommittee, and with your staff to try to develop whatever 

 proposal speaks intelligently and prudently to this great national 

 interest. 



Mr. Chairman, those are my comments and I would be happy to 

 answer questions now or as you have dialog with other members 

 of the panel. 



[The prepared statement of Mr. Magrath appears at the conclu- 

 sion of the hearing.] 



Mr. Stenholm. Thank you very much. 



Next we will hear from Dr. Phillips, executive director of the 

 Govemment-University-Industry Research Roundtable, National 

 Academy of Sciences. 



STATEMENT OF DON I. PHILLIPS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, GOV- 

 ERNMENT-UNIVERSITY-INDUSTRY RESEARCH ROUNDTABLE, 

 NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



Mr. Phillips. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 



I have been asked to review proceedings, deliberations, and re- 

 ports of the Roundtable between 1985 and 1991 on the issue of re- 

 search facility financing and also the survey data compiled by the 

 National Science Foundation on facility needs and funding. I will 

 go quickly through some of the highlights. More thorough treat- 

 ment is in my prepared statement and in reports cited therein. 



First, I will review quickly some of the NSF data on facility 

 needs and funding — and I want to emphasize the point that these 

 are facilities in general and not agricultural facilities in particular. 

 They are research facilities, though, at academic institutions. 



NSF noted in the 1992 survey that 40 percent of the top 100 re- 

 search universities reported need for more research space. Of the 

 agricultural science departments, 34 percent reported need for 

 more research space. Only 27 percent of all research space at aca- 

 demic institutions was considered suitable for use in the most sci- 

 entifically sophisticated research. As has been mentioned earlier, 

 49 percent of research space in the agricultural sciences requires 

 repair, renovation, or replacement. That is the highest percentage 

 among all fields surveyed by NSF. 



NSF estimates that the total cost for performing all needed re- 

 pair and renovation is somewhere between $7 bilhon and $8 billion. 

 While they don't provide a specific number for construction needs, 

 owing to some of the methodological difficulties in the survey, a 

 conservative estimate would place that need at least at the level 

 of need for repair and renovation. 



While the NSF noted some increase in the indicators over the 

 three surveys over the past 6 years, and about a 10-percent in- 

 crease in research space, it is still the case that the needs far ex- 



