295 



Mr. Abel. Until that time obviously proposals had to be discouraged 

 as a matter of fairness. Proposals are now coming in. They are cur- 

 rently in review. To properly evaluate these proposals the Science 

 Foundation is in the process of convening two panels. The first panel 

 will consider proposals for sea-grant project support. Again, owing 

 to the extremely broad scope of the act, covering as it does the basic 

 sciences pertaining to oceanography, for example, marine biology, 

 chemical oceanography, et cetera, also encompassing the applied na- 

 ture of the ocean development itself, for example, fisheries, offshore 

 mining, aquatic recreation, et cetera, and concerning specifically the 

 imposition of the social sciences for example, economics, law^ of the sea, 

 et cetera, we will find that this panel will be extremely large, perhaps 

 as many as 100 persons. Naturally this panel will probably never meet 

 in its entirety. 



Rather, when proposals are submitted to the Science Foundation, 

 it is our current intention to select from this broad panel individual 

 task teams according to their individual areas of expertise. The second 

 panel will be somewhat more formal in nature. It will consider pro- 

 posals for sea grant institutional support. In this category would be 

 included the schools coming in for support under all phases of the act, 

 including research and development, education and training and the 

 advisory services. This panel, as presently designed, would include 

 nine persons, drawn about equally from industry, and from the aca- 

 demic world, with a fair geographic representation since the act itself 

 is clearly oriented to local and regional problems. Finally, the mem- 

 bers of this panel would include several areas of expertise — ^the sciences 

 and the various applications. Since you are after all the authors of this 

 bill, I have skipped rather simply over the mechanics of its imple- 

 mentation and naturally will be happly to answer any questions on 

 the subject. However, I would like to discuss a few of the issues which 

 have emerged coincident with the bill's development and the imple- 

 mentation of the act. 



First of all, while this act is one of the broader mandates handed 

 by the Congress to the executive branch of the Government, concern- 

 ing as it does the entire spectrum from basic research to advanced 

 engineering and development, for good reason the Science Founda- 

 tion has elected to emphasize the applied research, sector of that 

 R. & D. spectrum. First, it was evident as the sense of Congress from 

 the hearings, from the reports, that this was the intent of the act, the 

 major thrust. 



Secondly, we would prefer not to compete with the other sections 

 in the National Science Foundation, with the Office of Naval Research, 

 and with several other Federal agencies who already sponsor basic 

 research. 



