58 SEA GRANT COLLEGES 



Here I would like to borrow some thoughts from the book GOVERNMENT 

 AND SCIENCE by Don K. Price, formerly Associate Director of the Ford Foun- 

 dation and presently Dean of the Harvard School of Business Administration. Dr. 

 Price describes five types of relationships which the U. S. Government main- 

 tains today with private institutions. 



Tne first relationship concerns a specific contract, such as for the im- 

 provement of a certain device, for development of a new one, or for any other 

 specific research project in a university. 



The second relationship is built around a so-called "master" contract with 

 several individual institutions. This contract is rather general, merely stating 

 the terms of the relationships, so that new projects can be undertaken by an 

 order without requiring negotiations for new contracts. 



The third relationship applies to a "special study" contract consum.mated 

 for investigating all phases of newly identified major problenns. For instance, 

 sometimes the military services identify major problems' requiring new ap- 

 proaches which may be based on scientific development, on strategic or tactical 

 thinking, or on a combination of all three aspects. In other countries, such as- 

 signments are generally given to military staffs. Dr. Price claims that only in 

 the United States, are studies of such crucial importance to the nation's welfare 

 farmed out to universities. 



The fourth type of relationship evolved frona those mentioned earlier -- 

 conduct of a scientific enterprise -- sometimes requires not only technical but 

 also managerial competence. Several major universities have been happy to take 

 on such assignments and have separated the contract groups from their normal 

 administrative systenns. Of interest to the poverty stricken oceanographer are 

 the facts that the Atomic Energy Commission supported the Argonne Laboratory 

 at the University of Chicago at a level above that of the entire University prior 

 to World War II, and that the Lincoln Laboratories at Massachusetts Institute of 

 Technology (MIT) now spend about $60 million a year, considerably more than 

 the entire Institute spends yearly on teaching. 



Finally, concerning the fifth relationship, we have witnessed in recent 

 years private corporations founded especially for government programs. Ex- 

 amples are the Associated Universities which run the Brookhaven Laboratories 

 on Long Island for the AEC, and the National Solar and Radio Astronomy Observ- 

 atories for the National Science Foundation; the Rand Corporation which under- 

 takes much of the planning for the Air Force. 



Theoretically, of course, our contractual system enables the various fed- 

 eral contracting officers to conapletely dominate the decisions of the university 

 investigators. In agricultural colleges, however, this simply has not happened. 



Dr. Price describes one of the better features of these arrangements -- 

 that of the feedback. For instance, the Applied Physics Laboratory has not 

 merely worked according to military requirements; it has originated ideas on 

 its own that have significantly influenced Navy planners. On the other hand. Dr. 

 Price sees our agricultural aid systems as unique "by comparison either with 

 other government programs in the United States or similar programs in other 

 countries." He criticizes the agricultural programs as being limited in their 

 potential for growth, dealing as they do with specialized subject matter "set 

 aside from the more dynamic elements of industrial development that are rapidly 

 urbanizing the nation and changing its relations with the rest of the world." Be- 

 cause of the very nature of its subject matter, its projects and programs are in- 

 dividual and relatively small. 



Dr. Price also notes that even the salaries of scientists who are essentially 

 on the payroll of the state governments, maybe stabilized at a low level because 



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