49 



earlier relevant to the needs in each individual State and the re- 

 sources available and the competitiveness of those various States. 



Apphed research on the application end, as you could imagine, 

 tends to be more specific. It makes this more targeted funding 

 State funding, and the majority of the present investment tends to 

 be by the States in the apphed arena. The National Academy of 

 Sciences' National Research Council study and subsequent inter- 

 pretations suggest that an underinvestment at the discovery or 

 breakthrough level is in existence in this Nation, and perhaps this 

 is a role for the Federal Government. 



But keep in mind in hght of the earlier discussions that we do 

 not want to sell short the formula funding, because these funds are 

 the \inique feature that maintains the glue of the State-Federal 

 partnership, and they must be maintained and with inflationsiry 

 offsets. 



Special grants, if not confused with the pork barrel funding, offer 

 a mechanism to focus the highly specific, short-term research on 

 national priorities. 



Relevant to the question of the linkage with proactive roles for 

 extension and teaching, we have discussed this earlier, and it will 

 be discussed fiirther, and I would like to add that the research pro- 

 grams integrated with maintaining and enhancing the academic 

 programs, creating the next generation of agricultural scientists 

 and the extension programs and getting the technology out has to 

 be linked together if our system is going to continue to have the 

 success it has had. 



Mr. Chairman, one of our challenges at the State universities is 

 not different than what you're facing at the national level: How do 

 we adapt to our changing needs of society? We have been working 

 on this in the experiment station system since 1984 and have each 

 4 years come out with a rese£U*ch agenda strategic plan at the na- 

 tional level that sets out our priorities. In addition to those at the 

 national level, the four regional associations of State agricultural 

 experiment stations publish their strategic plan and how they take 

 these national issues and bring them to a regional level of what's 

 critical at the regional level. 



We need perhaps to better address some of the expanding expec- 

 tations that are put on us at the State agricultural experiment sta- 

 tions, and we are trjdng to do so, and with this committee's assist- 

 ance in looking at how there are better ways to do so, we would 

 like to be very much a participant in that. 



I would share with you that trjring to change at this time, when 

 we've had a 20 percent reduction in science power at the State 

 level, is putting a challenge upon our system also in the budget sit- 

 uation we face. We need to do some better planning perhaps with 

 our budgetary linkages and how the Federal agencies that are in- 

 volved in conducting research for agriculture that are beyond agri- 

 culture in the traditional agriculture department, how we can link 

 better with the EPA, with the DOE. We are making strides, we are 

 moving in that direction, and the assistance and ideas of this com- 

 mittee would be very much appreciated. 



Mr. Chairman, I want to thank you for the opportunity to re- 

 spond to these issues and will be happy to respond to £m.y questions 

 later. 



