OCEAN SCIENCES AND NATIONAL SECURITY 



09 



Table 5. — Budget for fiscal 1959, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution — • 

 Breakdown showing sources of income and types of expenses 



^°Tovemment contracts: nousands 



Navy $2,722.4 



National Science Foundation 623.2 



Atomic Energy Commission... 137.7 



Air Force - — - 59.7 



Fish and Wildlife Service 40. 



Weather Bureau 15.0 



Public Health Service 12.3 



3, 610. 3 



Commonwealth of Massachusetts 20.0 



Endowment -- 133.0 



Associates 12.0 



Total 3,775.3 



[In thousands] 



Source: Hearings before the Special Subcommittee on Oceanography of the Committee on Merchant 

 Marine and Fisheries, House of Representatives, 86th Cong., 1st sess., p. 270. 



Many of the problems peculiar to oceanographic laboratories are 

 revealed in Table 5. In the first instance it is clear that the funds 

 from the original endowment for WHOI as a nonprofit institution 

 now represent but a fraction of the total financial support; secondly, 

 the U.S. Government strongly dominates the fiscal scene. Although 

 a number of different agencies are represented, the Navy is the 

 primary sponsor. What this tabulation fails to reveal is that a large 

 part (some 30 percent) of the Navy support is for unspecified, basic 

 research. Thus, the identity of the supporting organization is not 

 necessarily an mdex of the type of activity expected. By and large, 

 however, in an era of stringent research budgets, one might expect 

 sponsors more likely to approve proposals for research if these pro- 

 posals are in areas considered of highest priority by the particular 

 Government agency, even if not considered of highest priority from 

 the point of view of the investigator. In the view of Dr. Clifford C. 

 Furnas, this is not necessarily harmful. In a recent appearance 

 before the House Science and Astronautics Committee on June 3, 

 1960, Dr. Furnas entered a plea for "vectored," if not specifically 

 directed, research to focus activity on those areas considered to be 

 in the greatest interest to the national welfare, rather than to allow 

 research investigators to follow random curiosity. The much broader 

 and unanswered question is the level at which decisions are to be 

 made as to which branches of science warrant special attention. 



Another characteristic of the oceanographic laboratory revealed in 

 Table 5 is the relatively large proportion of funds that must be allo- 



56612—60 6 



