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^6 ENVtRONMENTAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT 



on R&D programs lo varying degrees to suppon thai mission. Wc present 

 a scries of recommendations designed to improve the efTcctivcness of several 

 of the major federal R&D programs. 



Our third set of recommendations points to a number of mecha- 

 nisms to link federal programs to each other and to related programs in 

 academia, nongovernmental organizations, and industry. Wc also underscore 

 the importance of strong linkages between U.S. R&D programs and those 

 of other nations. The national and global environmental problems facing 

 the United States and the world are enormous and cannot be solved by one 

 federal agency or even one nation. With this in mind, we suggest several 

 ways to strengthen cooperative R&D efforts, both national and international. 



Finally, we examine ways to ensure that the intellectual base of our 

 environmental protection efforts is of adequate depth and breadth. Our 

 educational system, from kindergarten to twelfth grade, to undergraduate, 

 graduate, and postdoctoral training, must improve substantially if we are 

 to meet the environmental challenges of the future. Although there arc 

 notable bright spots in our present educational system, there is much that 

 can and must be improved in the years ahead. 



As part of our examination of federal environmental R&D programs 

 we considered a variety of organizational proposals, including suggestions 

 to establish a National Institute for the Environment (NIE). We agree with 

 several of the objectives of the NIE proposal: more support for environ- 

 mental research, including ecological and interdisciplinary studies; improved 

 storage of and access to data on environmental quality; and greater training 

 opportunities for environmental scientists. ^ However, in working to find 

 ways to achieve these and other objectives we have attempted, wherever 

 possible, to build upon the existing federal infrastructure, improving and 

 expanding csublished institutions. We recommend below that EPA estab- 

 lish and suppon up to six centers for envirotunental research. These centers 

 would have some of the features of an NIE. 



In the past twenty years a niunbcr of proposals to reorganize the 

 federal government have been advanced. These have ranged from grouping 

 all federal entities with environmental or natural resources responsibilities 

 into a Department of Natural Resources, to elevating the Environmental 

 Proteaion Agency to a cabinet-level department. The former would alter 

 the organization of R&D programs substantially, while the latter would have 

 less impact on them. In preparing our repon we have assumed that a major 

 federal reorganization is not likely and have consequently thought about 

 changes in the R&D system in the context of the present general depan- 

 mental and agency structures and the possible establishment of a Depart- 

 ment of the Environment. 



