NOAA elements, particularly the Environmental 
Data Service, are similarly active in technology and 
information transfer. 
The Department of Energy’s OTEC program, like 
the MarAd R&D program, is directed entirely to pro- 
viding industry with new technology. In addition to 
the technology development itself, however, OTEC 
includes studies to identify marketable applications 
of OTEC. Legal, institutional, and political analyses 
of OTEC utilization are also underway. This work 
is designed to maximize the potential for commercial 
application of OTEC technology. 
NASA has made technology transfer a major com- 
ponent of its SEASAT Program. The program has 
been planned in collaboration with other Federal 
agencies, the National Academy of Sciences, the Na- 
tional Academy of Engineering, and coastal-oriented 
industries. The program seeks to evaluate the scien- 
tific benefits and commercial utility of ocean satellite 
data, and to transfer remote-sensing technology to 
the user community. NOAA and the Navy will 
process SEASA.TJ-A data for their own use and dis- 
tribute data to other Government and nongovern- 
ment users. 
Laboratories of both DOE and NASA are mem- 
bers of the Federal Laboratory Consortium. Con- 
sortium membership also includes laboratories of the 
U.S. Geological Survey, Army Corps of Engineers, 
U.S. Coast Guard, and Environmental Protection 
Agency. 
Marine Research Programs 
Federally supported marine science activities, as 
noted earlier, are performed at Federal agency lab- 
oratories and at academic institutions. Most basic 
and applied marine research performed by non- 
Federal research ‘institutions is sponsored by four 
agencies: the National Science Foundation (NSF); 
the Office of Naval Research (ONR); Department of 
Energy; and the Department of Commerce’s National 
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 
The basic ocean research program of NSF provides 
the broadest support for academic marine science and 
is the major supporter of university research. ONR 
and the Department of Energy sponsor mulfipurpose 
research in areas related to their missions. The Sea 
Grant Program in NOAA supports a broad spectrum 
of ocean-related research performed by academic 
institutions. 
National Science Foundation 
NSF issued its first grant for ocean research in 
1951, only a year after the agency came into being. 
The NSF marine research program grew rapidly and 
through the 1960s was second only to that of ONR. 
In 1970, with the inauguration of the International 
Decade of Ocean Exploration (IDOE), the NSF ma- 
rine research budget, for the first time, exceeded 
ONR’s. 
NSF support of basic marine research is based on 
proposals from members of the oceanographic re- 
search community. Specialists from appropriate fields 
of science critically evaluate these proposals, in peer- 
panel reviews, for scientific merit, feasibility, and 
potential for advancing fundamental knowledge 
about some feature of the marine environment. Al- 
though about 100 academic institutions support re- 
search and education in some aspect cf the marine 
sciences, the high cost of operating research ships, 
submersibles, and other special facilities like piers 
and self-contained laboratory vans, has resulted in 
the concentration of a significant part of the research 
effort at some 15 major coastal laboratories (table 
7-2). The research community’s size and concentra- 
tion in these locations accounts for the fact that well 
over three-fourths of NSF-sponsored oceanographic 
research is done by scientists at these major labora- 
tories. 
The NSF program is administered primarily 
through the programs of its Division of Ocean Sci- 
ences and Division of Earth Sciences, in the Direc- 
torate for Astronomical, Atmospheric, Earth, and 
Ocean Sciences. On a lesser scale, marine research is 
also supported in the Division of Po:ar Programs, 
and Division of Atmospheric Sciences. In addition 
to this work the Directorate for Biological, Behav- 
ioral, and Social Sciences supports 2 few small marine 
biology studies and the Directorate for Research 
Applications has been involved in estuarine studies 
and research on the feasibility of offshore, multipur- 
pose structures. 
Division of Ocean Sciences 
In the Division of Ocean Sciences, a basic research 
program supports projects of individual scientists at 
the oceanographic institutions; a second supports a 
limited number of large, managed projects; and a 
third provides funds for the acquisition and operat- 
ing costs of the ships and other oceanographic facili- 
ties needed to carry out these programs. Support for 
individual research projects includes more than 300 
grants each year. These are made through academic 
and research institutions, to individual! scientists, or 
to small groups for development of knowledge about 
the oceans, their resources, and the sea ficor. Inves- 
VII-25 
