114 



While there are some large firms and large aggregations of firms 

 in businesses related to the ocean — oil and gas and parts of ship- 

 ping — a large number of the ocean-related businesses and busi- 

 nesses that operate on and near the seacoast, consist of numbers 

 of small- and medium-sized firms with relatively little individual 

 capacity to do research and development, and sometimes relatively 

 little capacity to know how to benefit from the available knowledge. 



For example, many parts of the boating and recreational indus- 

 tries, the construction industry when it works on homes and even 

 on businesses near and on the coast, and even our communities 

 which share common problems with sewage, flooding, water and 

 coastal construction and beaches when they operate separately and 

 independently, may not individually have the capability to learn 

 what is needed to be learned and to apply it. 



At the same time, the individual communities and businesses 

 have that, the federal agencies, for the reasons discussed this 

 morning, are developing such knowledge and technology and trymg 

 to share it with all of the other actors in the economic system. 



This suggests that we need some further elaboration of mecha- 

 nisms and institutions that will enable cooperation between the 

 federal agencies, the academic institutions, and the businesses and 

 individual communities and localities that might benefit each other 

 by using and applying what is learned, and by posing problems to 

 those who are doing the research. 



Though I'm not sure what kinds of institutions are required, but 

 I'd like to make a couple of comments about some characteristics 

 that they must share. 



While high-level commissions and coordinating bodies and orga- 

 nizations are useful, the lifeblood of knowing how to use knowledge 

 and knowing what the problems really are is direct contact be- 

 tween those who are doing the research and development and gen- 

 erating the knowledge, and those in communities £ind businesses 

 who might benefit by it and who might ask important questions 

 that will lead to new and important and useful research. 



Arms'-length mechanisms of the kind beloved by our procure- 

 ment systems are not a very good way to produce informal con- 

 versations. 



So one of the things I would hope that these committees will do 

 is make clear that the agencies and those who generate the knowl- 

 edge are authorized and encouraged to talk and to develop net- 

 works of informal contact and coordination across all levels of gov- 

 ernment and with the businesses and industries that will use the 

 results of the knowledge and technology that are generated. 



I make the point because we sometimes have formal statutory 

 and regulatory mechanisms that stand in the way of such conversa- 

 tions — not always, but sometimes. 



There have been applications of the Federal Advisory Committee 

 Act which have been made difficulties and there are aspects of pro- 

 curement that make difficulties. 



Without arguing that there is no necessity for vigilance and con- 

 cern over bias and conflict of interest, I think it is important that 

 there get to be mechanisms by which informal conversations about 

 ideas can continue and be encouraged. 



And one final and perhaps bold comment. 



