31 
President Kerr and Chancellor Mrak of the Davis campus, which had been 
selected because of the immediate availability of land in a climate suitable 
to free-ranging primates-^'. 
Dr. Allen, speaking for NIH, asked the Study Section whether it would advise 
setting up a primate conditioning center at this time; if so, whether a single 
university should act as host institution; and what principles and plans 
should be used for setting up, financing, and operating such a center. Dr. 
Allen said that $2.5 million was being considered for the establishment of 
the center that fiscal year, to cover cost of land, construction of facilities, 
and first year of operation^'. The Study Section thereupon reaffirmed the 
recommendation made at its May 8, 1961^ meeting in favor of establishing a 
conditioning center. The Study Section's May 8th recommendation included the 
following: "It — ' is of the opinion that such a facility should be established 
at the earliest possible moment. Whereas the major function of such a unit 
would be the development of techniques for procuring, conditioning and maintain- 
ing various primate species, it is almost certain to produce special experi- 
mental primates for use by qualified investigators and the opportunity to 
explore the diseases of primates easily transmissible to other animals and man, 
and vice versa . " After suggesting that 300 acres would be the amount of land 
needed, the Study Section agreed to meet at Davis to determine what other 
recommendations it should make to the Heart Council relative to a conditioning 
center there. It met at Davis on February 17, 1962, and recommended to the 
Council the establishment of the conditioning center at that location. 
The Heart Council at its March 1962 meeting recommended that a construction 
grant and an operations grant "be awarded to the University of California for 
the establishment of a national primate conditioning center at an appropriate 
site adjacent to the Davis campus, or at another appropriate site should the 
Davis site not remain available, the site to be negotiated by the staff of the 
National Heart Institute with appropriate persons in the university at a facil- 
ity cost not to exceed $2.5 million and at a fully developed operations cost 
not to exceed $1 million annually; and that in the site negotiations, the 
National Heart Institute staff is to obtain advice as necessary from members 
of the Primate Research Study Section." 
Thus, the last of the primate research centers became a reality. At the June 
1962 Heart Council meeting the members were informed that the Division of Re- 
search Facilities and Resources had been created and that, effective July 15, 1962, 
the Primate Research Centers Program would be transferred from the Heart Insti- 
tute to that Division. The work of the National Advisory Heart Council, its 
comjjaittees, and its staff was completedAQ' . 
57/ Dr. Ko F, Meyer played an important role in bringing about this establish- 
ment of the National Center for Primate Biology at Davis, California. 
58 / It was hoped to obtain Bureau of the Budget approval to use $2 million of 
the funds that had been appropriated for the primate center program but which 
had been held in reserve. These funds were not released. The NHI, however, was 
permitted to transfer $2.5 million from another NHI program for this purpose. 
59/ The Study Section. 
60/ Or rather almost completed, for a few more things had to be done in con- 
nection with the transfer of the program. 
