The Office for the IDOE communicates with scientists throughout 

 the world through the U.S. Department of State and its counterparts in 

 other governments, by way of the IOC and other intergovernmental orga- 

 nizations, through scientific bodies such as the International Council of 

 Scientific Unions and its scientific committees, and extensively on a sci- 

 entist-to-scientist basis. Often, informal communications by members of 

 IDOE projects are undertaken on their own initiative. The spectrum of 

 communication, bounded by the two extremes of formality and informality, 

 is essentially continuous. 



We shall use all practical means of communication to give scientists 

 and engineers in other nations a fuller understanding of the details of the 

 U.S. program. In so doing, it is our sincere hope that we may look forward 

 to a greatly increased exchange of ideas and the subsequent development 

 of new cooperative programs for the International Decade of Ocean Ex- 

 ploration. 



The philosophy of development of the U.S. program and projects for 

 the IDOE emphasizes scientific excellence and the potential for early 

 realization of goals. The program is composed of large-scale projects of 

 research focused on specific scientific areas. The projects are of such scale 

 that they can be successfully carried out only by teams of scientists from 

 many different disciplines (not necessarily limited to marine science), 

 through cooperation among many types of institutions and organizations, 

 and by participation of scientists and engineers from more than a single 

 nation. Emphasis is placed upon the potential benefit to mankind. 



Cooperation among institutions should avoid placing an impossible 

 burden upon the facilities of any one individual or organization. This 

 notion is carried over into the domain of sponsorship, where emphasis is 

 placed upon cooperative funding. In this way, the National Science Foun- 

 dation may partially support large projects which it might not otherwise 

 be able to afford. Similarly, it is anticipated that other participating gov- 

 ernments will sponsor their own scientists and IDOE programs to achieve 

 real international scientific cooperation. 



The process of selection of specific projects from the many proposed 

 to the Office for the IDOE by the academic community, non-profit foun- 

 dations and corporations, profit-making private industry, and by other 

 Government agencies, has taken place following several guidelines: 



1. The National Science Foundation Office for the IDOE does not 

 support research which is duplicative of other efforts or the re- 

 sponsibility of other organizations. 



2. Projects are concerned with the deep sea or the seaward portions 

 of the continental shelf. A notable exception is in the area of En- 

 vironmental Quality, where it is necessary to identify terrestrial 

 sources of pollutants. 



3. The Office for the IDOE does not sponsor isolated research. Every 

 research component of a project must contribute to the primary 

 goals of the entire project; thus the total project results should 

 be greater than would be the sum of the individual parts if sep- 

 arately done. 



