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In answering other questions, we have pointed out that there are special grants that are 

 awarded without competition to address site specific needs. Where this occurs, effort is 

 made to assure quality and relevance. 



Site specific special grants provide research to address recognized needs. However, if we 

 were assessing the merit and value of the elements of the overall federal agricultural 

 research portfolio based on a national strategy, these types of grants would not rate 

 as high in priority as other parts of the portfolio. If shifts in funding are needed to address 

 new high priority national r<eeds, these grants would seem to be the most likely candidates 

 for review. Not all site-^Eecific grants are poor investments of federal funds. Their 

 continuation or eliminations should, in our view, be based on merit and relevance. 



From the previous answer, one would be led to conclude that the amount of money that the 

 Administration will recommend and that Congress will appropriate for formula driven 

 programs is finite. Most of our community doubt that any more funds could have been 

 secured for these programs. Thus we beUeve that the gains that have been made in the NRI 

 and in special grants have not been at the expense of formula funds. Without these 

 alternative mechanisms of funding, we believe the total funds would not have grown. There 

 has never been a reduction in base programs during the existence of the NRI; in all but one 

 year, there have been modest increases. We believe that there should be substantial caution 

 in presenting the comparison of formula vs other funds as a comparison of the percentage 

 of total funds unless actual funding levels are also provided. 



Up to this point, we have not been aware of an explicit trade-out between facilities and 

 programs, jJthough this must certainly be a factor in broad terms that is dealt with by the 

 Appropriations Committees. 



8. How can we properly balance formula funding, competitive grants and special 

 grants? 



There would seem to be three implicit components to this question: (1) what is the present 

 distribution, (2) what is the optimum distribution (as a function of total funding) and (3) 

 how can we generate the proper balance? In our strategic plarming, we look at issues first 

 and methods of funding as a second level of plaiming. Often addressing a critical national 

 issue involves funding from several sources and mechanisms. 



Present Distribution: 



There are unfortunate semantics problems in the use of the basic-applied descriptors~the 

 terms mean different things to different communities both within and outside of the research 

 community. We beUeve that applied and mission Unked are roughly synonymous, although 

 our perception of the NRI faculty's interpretation is that the mission linked end of the NRI 

 spectrum is more basic than what is more commonly defined as applied research. 



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