188 
NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL 
EXECUTIVE ORDER ISSUED BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, 
MAY 11, 1918 
The National Research Council was organized in 1916 at the request of 
the President by the National Academy of Sciences, under its Congressional 
charter, as a measure of national preparedness. The work accomplished by 
the Council in organizing research and in securing co-operation of military 
and civiHan agencies in the solution of military problems demonstrates its 
capacity for larger service. The National Academy of Sciences is therefore 
requested to perpetuate the National Research Council, the duties of which 
shall be as follows: 
1. In general, to stimulate research in the mathematical, physical and 
biological sciences, and in the application of these sciences to engineering, 
agriculture, medicine, and other useful arts, with the object of increasing 
knowledge, of strengthening the national defense, and of contributing in 
other ways to the public welfare. 
2. To survey the larger possibilities of science, to formulate comprehensive 
projects of research, and to develop effective means of utilizing the scientific 
and technical resources of the country for dealing with these projects. 
3. To promote co-operation in research, at home and abroad, in order to 
secure concentration of effort, minimize duplication, and stimulate progress; 
but in all co-operative undertakings to give encouragement to individual 
initiative, as fundamentally important to the advancement of science. 
4. To serve as a means of bringing American and foreign investigators 
into active co-operation with the scientific and technical services of the 
War and Navy Departments and with those of the civil branches of the 
Government. 
5. To direct the attention of scientific and technical investigators to the 
present importance of mihtary and industrial problems in connection with 
the war, and to aid in the solution of these problems by organizing specific 
researches. 
6. To gather and collate scientific and technical information at home and 
abroad, in co-operation with Governmental and other agencies and to render 
such information available to duly accredited persons. 
Effective prosecution of the Council's work requires the cordial collabora- 
tion of the scientific and technical branches of the Government, both military 
and civil. To this end representatives of the Government, upon the nomi- 
nation of the President of the National Academy of Sciences, will be desig- 
nated by the President as members of the Council, as heretofore, and the 
heads of the departments immediately concerned will continue to co-operate 
in every way that may be required. 
WooDROw Wilson. 
The White House, 
May 11, 1918. 
