205 



VfA,'n\ I jarfership 



The changing environment in which the agricultural research system operates requires more 

 Qvm increased research funding to achieve desired results. 'Funds also need to be reallocated from 

 current projects to research that reflects new needs. The appropriate allocation of resoiu-ces will 

 depend primarily on what society wants the system to accoiiq)lish. Resources cannot be allocated 

 appropriately imless priorities are determined and goals established."'^ 



OTA sees the need for better and more consistent goal-setting. Stepping back from agricultural 

 research and considering all the R&D agencies, principles of decentralization and pluralism dominate 

 Federal research fimding. Recent strategic planning exercises at the National Institutes of Health and 

 dte National Science Foundation, for example, are responses to demands for managing scarce resources 

 while making research more relevant to industry, linking research to technological innovation and its 

 transfer, and e nhancing U.S. economic competitiveness intemationally. Often prompted by authorizing 

 committees, such strategic plans signal a rethinking of agency missions in terms of national needs- 

 especialiy the needs of research for consumers as well as producers. >' 



USDA needs to develop a conprefaensive misacHi statement that will take it into the 21st 

 ea ituiy , as wdl as a strategic plan for how that mission will be accomplislied. Such a plan must 

 include research priorities for both the short and kmg tenn-a bhieinint of essential needs for the 

 coodoct of research, including research facilities. Congress may need to mandate this to assure 

 diat USDA ddivcrs fai a timdy manner. 



A former university chancellor recently noted that: 



" Ibid., p. 419. 



'* For examfde. see U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, 



Chairman' i Report: Report of the Task Force on the Health of Research, 102d Cong., 2d Session (Washington, 

 DC: U.S. Goveimnent Printing Office, July 1992). 



