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Research Centers. Do you feel that such an advisory board is 

 necessary to ensure that NURP is able to operate more 

 effectively? 



Answer: No. The National Office uses both peer and onsite 

 reviewers. A Steering Committee would lay another level of 

 bureaucracy on the program and restrict the efficiency of present 

 operations. Furthermore, the cost of administering the Committee 

 and its functions would use funds which could be better spent on 

 research or at-sea operations. 



Question: Do you feel that this steering committee should review 

 the configuration of undersea regions every five years to determine 

 if these regions are consistent with scientific needs? 



Answer: No. The program has already established a mechanism of 

 re-certification of each Center every six years. Additionally, 

 the program has already established and implemented a procedure 

 for creating a new Center when the need for that Center has been 

 derived from the research community in that region. The 

 procedure resulted in the establishment of the West Coast Center 

 at the University of Alaska in 1990. 



Question: Dr. Ostenso, in your testimony, you state that the 

 National Office annually updates its guidance for identifying 

 high priority research and technology themes. What is your 

 process for determining what constitutes priority research? Has 

 NOAA developed criteria for this research? Based on this 

 information, how is it then determined which programs to fund? 



Answer: A combination of factors are used to update the annual 

 guidelines. Suggestions from the centers, peer review panels. 

 National Office staff, interagency workshops, and NOAA goals are 

 all used to identify the science and technology priorities. In 

 FY 1993, funds permitting, NURP plans to have several workshops 

 involving academic and NOAA scientists in order to continue to 

 identify the most important and highest priority research themes 

 for undersea research and technology. 



Answer : 



Question: Of the NURP total budget for FY 1993 ($15,998,000), 

 how much is spent on research and how much is used purely for 

 administrative costs. Why is this the breakdown? 



Answer: The following table summarizes the breakdown between 

 administration, operations, and science support for the six 

 Centers and the National Office OUR) for FY 1993. Univ. N. 

 Carolina-Wilmington (UNCW); Univ. Connecticut -Avery Point (UCAP); 



