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to be marshalled all at once for a given investigation of a priority ocean area. 

 The Commission's recommendation, quite logically, was based on a limited num- 

 ber of groupings of such facilities because of the capital investment required. 

 Such groupings already exist, but need to be expanded. The Nation's great 

 oceanographic laboratories, Scripps, Wood Hole, and Lamont, already have the 

 nuclei on which to build. And so do a few other institutions. 



(2) The kind of "big science" research conducted by the University National 

 Laboraitories cannot be turned ofE and on by minor changes in fiscial priorities. 

 This is what happens when the laboratories must depend on project-type fund- 

 ing. Under such uncertain funding it is difficult to miaintain the necessary staffs, 

 with guarantee of tenure, and it is difficult to plan operations in support of re- 

 search. Under the concept of the University National Laboratory, block funding 

 would be provided to support the core facilities and operations. Such block fund- 

 ing would enable the laboratories to plan and conduct oceanic research at the 

 level the Commission proposes, and which the national interest requires. The 

 block funding, with a statement of intent to fund annually, could be supple- 

 mented with specific project grants by the mission-oriented agencies for the 

 conduct of programs important to their missions. Further the Univeirsity Na- 

 tional Laboratories would not be for the exclusive use of the managing university 

 but would provide facilities for investigatoirs from other institutions, both inland 

 and coastal. 



In summary, the two principal elements for the University National Labora- 

 tories are adequate facilities in a few places to conduct "big" ocean science, 

 and block funding to assure the maintenance of facilities and staff. 



It is also important to note that the laboratories would operate primarily off- 

 shore. Their objective would be to gain understanding of the ocean environment — 

 its physical characteristics, its chemistry, its biology, and its interactions with 

 sun, air, and land. The research would be basic in nature. 



The Commission's recommendation was that the funding of the University 

 National Laboratories be assigned to the new agency, NOAA. This may be de- 

 sirable within the context of the new agency's mission as the Congress legislates 

 it, but it is also unnecessary. In other words, we need not wait for a new agency 

 to institute a University National Laboratory program. Both the National Science 

 Foundation and the Office of Naval Beseareh have such block funding programs. 

 Either agency could manage the University National Laboratory program quite 

 as well as could a new agency. In fact, the new agency would have to lean on the 

 experience — and perhaps recruit the actual personnel — of NSF and ONR. The 

 Commission itself pointed out that NCAR, the National Center for Atmospheric 

 Research, now administered by NSF, is the atmospheric equivalent of the oceanic 

 University National Laboratories. The management by Scripps, under NSF fund- 

 ing, of the deep ocean drilling program, is equivalent to operations proposed for 

 the University National Laboratories. In fact, because the operations would be 

 for research into the natural phenomena of the seas, I can see merit in leaving 

 basic research and the laboratory operation where it now resides. Certainly the 

 nation must have more ocean scientific research as an underpinning to all its 

 ocean goals, but I think the principal need is In ocean technology and engineering. 



COASTAL ZONE LABORATORIES 



The concept of the Coastal Zone Laboratories was to ensure the availability of 

 science and engineering necessary for the use, maintenance, and improvement of 

 the Coastal Zone. The coastal zone and the high seas do merge, and there are 

 some common problems, but most of the problems are quite different. It is in the 

 coastal area that man's activities have the greatest impact and where there is 

 the greatest confiict among users. The Coastal Zone Laboratories would provide 

 the information on which management decisions of a real and practical nature 

 would be based at the appropriate level of government. And the Laboratories 

 would also devise the best means of carrying out such decisions with due regard 

 to maintenance or restoration of the environment, conservation, and the public 

 interest. 



The Commission recommended assignment of responsibility for the Coastal 

 Zone Laboratories to the National Sea Grant Program. I think the reasons are 

 apparent. Sea Grant, which has concentrated initially on coastal zone resources, 

 already has funded institutions to carry out research identical to that envisaged 

 for the Coasal Zone Laboratories. I know the committee is aware that Sea Grant 



