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meet continuing commitments, or else from state legislatures. The latter, in the- 

 case of several of our member institutions, are not disposed to add further to their 

 tax burdens and have even, in fact, cut back similar expenditures. 



A similar problem arises in connection with the oo^^ percent cost sharing 

 requirement. The provision that the value of existing, non-federally financed 

 buildings may be used for this purpose provides only a temporary solution. 



The general problems of funding research are compounded by the fact that addi- 

 tion of funds to NSF for the Sea Grant program has been offset by a reduction 

 of funds elsewhere in the NSF budget. The net result of this procedure may be 

 a change of emphasis towards mission-oriented activities, at the expense of basic 

 research, support for which we believe already to be disproportionately low. 



10. Regional Fleet Operation 



The institutions have been concerned by proposals for the operation of regional 

 research fleets, instead of institutional vessels. It is generally agreed that such 

 operations cannot supply the needs of institutional programs of a continuing 

 nature, although it is agreed, with reservations, that they may serve the occa- 

 sional individual who does not choose to seek employment at an oceanographic 

 laboratory. 



The work at sea varies from one institute to another and the research vessels 

 inevitably reflect this in a variety of design and equipment. For an institute that 

 operates one or more research vessels on a full time basis, it is clearly desirable 

 that these vessels be completely under the control of the institute. It has also 

 been noted that efficient teamwork at sea is only possible when the same ship's 

 crew and scientific party are accustomed to work together. 



Furthermore, it has been found necessary to plan far ahead to schedule the 

 allocation of a ship's time between several groups of scientists within an insti- 

 tute, in close cooperation with the marine superintendent and with due atten- 

 tion to necessary maintenance schedules. This is difficult to do even when all 

 persons involved are located within one institute. To do this on a regional basis 

 would be unduly cumbersome. 



In short, it is the consensus that regional fleet operation would in no way benefit 

 the seagoing oceanographic institutions or the goA-ernment but would be ol)struc- 

 tive to their work. A detailed statement on this has already been presented. 



11. Research Vessel Operation Funding 



A severe shortage of fimds for ship operation could, unless corrected, result 

 in the laying up of some research vessels and, in some cases, could result in the 

 virtual cessation of seagoing activities on the part of major institutions. This is 

 the most critical problem today, but there are other factors concerned with ship 

 operation that would continue to place obstacles in the way of eflacient operation, 

 even if adequate funds were available. 



If the oceanographic fleet is to be operated continuously, it is a waste of time 

 to require top ranking scientists annually to prepare extensive and detailed pro- 

 posals for that operation. The funding of the research fleet and auxiliary shore- 

 side facilities on an ad hoc basis should be replaced by long-term coordinated 

 block funding that would greatly increase the cost effectiveness of both sci- 

 entists and reseai-ch facilities. More simply put, when the federal government 

 provides an oceanographic research vessel, it should be prepared to guarantee 

 operating funds for that vessel. 



Until recent years the funding of ship operations was arranged on a piece- 

 meal basis. TTnder this arrangement, the total co.st of a ship's operation was 

 divided proportionately among the projects to be assigned to her. It was then 

 necessary to negotiate ship funding separately for each individual project in 

 order to reach the required total. 



A great step forward was made on the initiative of NSF when the concept 

 of block funding was advanced. In this case the funding of ship operations was 

 to be essentially by means of a single proposal. However, in practice there are 

 still a number of difficulties. 



One of the time-consuming and burdensome requirements is that of scientific 

 justification. In submitting a proposal for ship funds it is still required that 

 each project to be assigned to the ship be described and be siTbjected to approval 

 by a panel. Since most of these projects have already been appraised by agency 

 panels for their scientific merit in applying for non-ship support costs, this is a 



