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• Most of the above examples have involved cooperations with governmental 

 entities, and the local economic benefits have been relatively indirect. The 

 Institution, however, has very direct partnerships with local businesses, mainly 

 through spawning local small, high technology companies that specialize in ocean 

 instrxjmentation or in environmental consulting services. 



Throughout the previous examples, I have emphasized the partnerships that have a distinctly 

 regional focus I would like to point out, however, that some of our partnerships having a 

 national focus can still have distinct local benefits. Let me give an example: 



• The United States Na\7 is presently very concerned about problems involving 

 mine countermeasures (MCM) in the coastal ocean. One of the primary issues 

 here is how ocean sediment (sand) scours out or buries mines Thus, the Navy is 

 actively interested in sediment transport in the coastal ocean, and Woods Hole 

 scientists are actively involved in basic research on this topic Through the Navy's 

 policy of encouraging dual use research, the same scientific and engineering results 

 that will help improve warfighting capabilities will be useful to civilian coastal 

 engineers for dealing with beach erosion and coastal hazards Beach erosion alone 

 costs this nation hundreds of milhons of dollars each year in property damage and 

 attempts at remediation. 



I could give numerous, similar examples of Woods Hole partnerships with the Navy that 

 involve advances in coastal meteorology, instrument development and marine pollution. 



We are very proud of Woods Hole's track record of partnerships. These efforts have 

 provided, and continue to provide, practical information for a variety of users, and have made 

 good use of increasingly scarce assets We value our regional, as well as national, partnerships, 

 and we hope to make them grow in the future. We applaud the recent governmental trend to 

 break down institutional barriers and allow more effective cooperation among the private, 

 governmental and academic sectors. 



We at Woods Hole are, of course, concerned about possible decline in funding for scientific 

 and engineering research and education. The issue is not simply one of the health of our own 

 institution and dependent aspects of the nearby economy. The broader problem is that declining 

 funds could potentially postpone or cancel societal benefits that we see on the horizon. For 

 example, the GLOBEC Georges Bank study promises to revise our thinking about, and 

 management of this important fishery A serious decline of fiinding for this work could allow the 

 continuation of the previous policies that have allowed the present collapse of the fishery Similar 

 concerns could be expressed with regard to all the other partnership examples that I have given. 



We encourage our individual scientists and engineers to develop research partnerships 

 outside the academic sector In the process of doing this kind of research, we strive to ensure that 

 peer review be a central paradigm for awarding money. There are a few specific things that could 

 be done that from the governmental end to encourage further growth of these partnerships 



