OCEANOGRAPHY 1961 — PHASE 3 267 



Mr. Bauer. Well, the research function and the survey function in 

 the Indian Ocean : As far as the nonprofit institutions are concerned, 

 you fund the complete operation, do you not ? 



Dr. Maxweix. That is correct; as far as the univei-sities and non- 

 profit institutions are concerned, the Office of Naval Re.search funds 

 the complete Navy part of this. But in addition, tlie Natioiial Science 

 Foundation is supporting a part of the Indian Ocean expedition. 



Mr. Bauer. By grant ? 



Dr. Max^well. By grant; that is correct. 



Mr. Bauer. So essentially for doing the same thing, having the 

 same ship in the same place on the seas of the world, there are two 

 sources of finance, one a grant, the other a contract. Is that correct ? 



Dr. Maxwell. This is correct, but these may be, the contracts and 

 the grants may be, so written so that they are not cohering the 

 same aspects. For example, the ship costs may well be covered by 

 contract, whereas some of the equipment and salaries of the research 

 people might be covered by grants. So that it is not a duplication. 



Mr. Bauer. But if Hydro sends ships to the Indian Ocean, it 

 would come out of O. & M. money, would it not? 



Dr. Maxwell. That is correct. 



Mr. Bauer. Admiral, how do you decide that a project is meri- 

 torious and worthy of contracting? 



Admiral Coates. In general, across all fields of research I believe 

 that we get about four times as many proposals as we let contracts. 

 In other words, one-fourth, roughly, of all proposals received result 

 in ONE, contracts. So we have the opportunity to be very highly 

 selective. 



And the basis for our selection is, of course: No. 1, how much 

 are we interested in the particular program? How well is that 

 field alread}'^ covered? Two, does the proposal appear to be a po- 

 tentially productive proposal? No. 3, what do we think of the 

 reputation and skill of the investigator? 



And I would like to make it clear that in all consideration of 

 proposals we pay little or no attention to the reputation of the 

 institution or corporation or university out of which the proposal 

 comes, but only to the competence of the man who is proposing to 

 do the research. 



And on those bases we make our selection of the best of the pro- 

 posals in the various fields to the amount that we have funds allocated 

 for the purpose. 



Mr. Bauer. Well, who makes the selection, again ? Is it your staff, 

 or do you have advice? 



Admiral Coates. It is our staff. Our staff makes the final decision. 

 They do seek advice in appropriate areas. 



Mr. Bauer. Do you have any formalized advisory board for that 

 purpose ? 



Admiral Coates. No, sir, we do not. 



Mr. Bauer. Then ultimately, the Assistant Secretary of Navy for 

 Research and Development would be in a position to be the top man 

 on the decision you make ? 



Admiral Coates. Yes, sir. He is my boss. 



