120 



U> ENVIRONMENTAL RESEAKCH AND DEVELOPMENT 



■ The R&D acttvtties of the Department of Energy National Lahoratories 

 should he evaluated to determine their potential to make future contnbu- 

 tiom to national and interrtattonal environmental KSiD programs (sec pages 

 86-89). 



• Department of Defense envtronmentrelated research and development 

 efforts should be integrated with those of other federal departments and 

 agencies. Alternatively, some of these activities could be transferred to en- 

 vironmental RScD programs within other departments and agencies (see 

 pages 89-90). 



■ A larger proportion of the funds devoted to the cleanup of hazardous 

 waste at federal facilities should be directed to research and development 

 (see pages 90-91). 



Linking and Coordinating Programs 



The global nature of environmental problems requires that U.S. environ- 

 mental R&D programs operate in concen with those of other nations. Fur- 

 thermore, the federal environmental R&D effbn will operate most effectively 

 if it is closely linked with complementary programs in academia, nongov- 

 ernmental organizations, and industry. Since the environmental R&D system 

 should be more than the sum of its parts, more effective interactions be- 

 tween all parties engaged in environmental R&D should be promoted. 



■ In order to strengthen the link between environmental R&D and policy 

 development, assessment capabilities across federal agencies should be ex- 

 panded. Furthermore, U.S. environmental R&D progtams should be coupled 

 more closely with those of other nations. Greater cooperation among sd- 

 endfic disciplines and among federal, nongovernmental, and industrial re- 

 search programs should be encouraged (sec pages 91-97). 



■ The linkages between environmental RSdD and policy development 

 should be strengthened, and the federal government should substantially 

 increase its support of multidiscip Unary policy studies and assessments de- 

 signed to forge and evaluate these linkages. The development of effective 

 environmental policy requires interaction among the natural sciences, eco- 

 nomics, political science, and law, as well as many other disciplines. "^ date, 

 however, federal agencies have focused their environmental R&D efforts on 

 the natural sciences: no single institution is responsible for pursuing funding 

 authority to advance multidisciplinary research involving the social sciences. 

 We recommend that the federal govenunent devote a larger percentage of 



