257 



perienced in, nor sympathetic to oceanography. Incidentally, this also leaves 

 the possibility that "funds originally intended for oceanography may be granted 

 to projects of a biomedical or biological nature which are not essentially ocean- 

 ography and for which other funds exist. Thus it is believed that the published 

 budget for biological oceanography may give an inflated impression of the 

 amount actually devoted to it. 



A disturbing lack of consistency also exists between the earth sciences and 

 biology programs of some agencies. In particular the earth sciences program 

 will fund the costs of senior investigators in full, whereas the biological pro- 

 grams refuse to support more than a certain percentage. This, incidentally, is in 

 addition to the regular cost sharing. 



It is recommended that, in the agencies where this confusion exists, a biolog- 

 ical oceanography program be set up separately from biology, or else that it be 

 merged with earth isciences oceanography, where the confusion does not exist. 



6. The Funding of Mission-Oriented Research 



Mention has been made of the desirability of closer cooperation between Fed- 

 eral mission-oriented agencies and the institutions. It has also been pointed out 

 that there is an impelling reason for the institutions to provide facilities for 

 their graduate students to engage in the type of research appropriate to the 

 agencies. Since no funds are available for this t.vpe of work in the funding agen- 

 cies, it is impossible to provide adequate graduate research unless the mission- 

 oriented agencies support a reasonable amount of such work at the institutions. 

 This, in fact, has been carried out to a limited extent by some of the agencies, 

 such as BCF and ONR, who are aware of the need for it. Nevertheless the agen- 

 cies themselves face certain difficulties in developing a stable program of this 

 nature. 



Agencies having both contract and in-house research programs must naturally 

 give priority to their own programs in times of budget tightening. This often 

 presents great difliculty to the academic community, which may face sudden 

 and complete cut-'backs in agency funding. To avoid this, it is recommended 

 that contract research programs in mission-oriented agencies be handled b.v a 

 group completely seiiarate from the in-house part of the agency. This separate 

 group should have its own funding which is not available to the agencies' in- 

 house program. This is similar to the highly successful pattern that has been 

 used by the Navy Department with the Ofiice of N^aval Research. It is also clearly 

 desirable that a closer coordination and liaison be eifected between the institu- 

 tions and the misision-oriented agencies. 



7. The Funding of Engineering Research 



In order to fulfill their important role as the primary sources of oceanographic 

 engineers, academic institutions involved have .supplemented their conventional 

 engineering curricula with courses designed to give an understanding of the 

 special problems of the ocean environment, such as wave and current stress, 

 corrosion and hydrodynamics. In order to do this effectively, the graduate stu- 

 dent must be provided with research experience in the field. 



The two sources from which this student research can be funded are industry 

 and the government. The industrial organizations are well aware of the need 

 for specialized training in ocean engineering. Unfortunately, rather than co- 

 tract wuth the institutions for research and development projects of modest size, 

 suitable for engineering students, the tendency is for industry to provide its 

 engineers with the experience they lack by in-house efforts. 



The government mission-oriented agencies may be in a better position to pro- 

 vide this type of research by contract. There appears to be little or no provision 

 for this type of support among the granting agencies and this deficiency should 

 be corrected, since industry has not responded to the institutions to any appre- 

 ciable degree. 



The attention of the President's Council is drawn to this problem, which may 

 well become a principal bottleneck in the development of marine resources and 

 technology. Obviously, whatever solution is found, a higher degree of coordina- 

 tion between the institutions and industry is desirable. 



S. Long-Term and Block Funding 



One of the greatest problems of operating the institutions and one which causes 

 serious financial losses and imposes excessive demands upon the top level scien- 

 tific personnel, is the erratic manner in which funding is carried out. Some of 



