23 
would have, ideally at least, university appointments. The regional or 
national function means that the center would provide space and certain basic 
equipment to visiting scientists from the region, the country, or even out- 
side the country. The center might use only one or two prime species of 
primates, although the center would not be limited as to the variety of species 
it might use. The director of the center would have the advantage of an ad- 
visory board made up of people from the university with which the center is 
associated, and people from nearby universities and/or universities throughout 
the country." 
Also, it was pointed out that the funds in Dr. Burch's chairmanship grant had 
not been used to plan a national primate research station, as recommended by 
the Council, because of the development of the regional "center" concept. 
The NACP, at its meeting on January 30, 1960, reviewed eleven applications 
for regional primate research centers. Only three^/ "met the criteria which 
were established as a basis for review of applications this year."-^' The 
committee recommended two of these three for support from the $2 million 
available; the third was recommended for deferral. Five others were recommen- 
ded for reconsideration in the future, should additional funds become available. 
Orders of priority were indicated for the two recommended and also for the 
others. The committee also recommended that support for primate resources, 
within existing research institutions, be encouraged, particularly with regard 
to non-matching construction grants. This was in addition to the committee 
resolutions drafted in San Francisco. 
At this time the difficult problem of de'cis ion- making emerged. Although the 
written records of meetings indicate this, they do not reflect the soul-search- 
ing and differences in viewpoints that existed. The problem was essentially 
that the final decision on the establishment of regional primate research 
centers had to be based upon a number of considerations other than the scien- 
tific merit of the primate research already being carried on by an investi- 
gator or investigators at the site selected. The question was whether the 
study section (NACP), the Council, or the Heart Institute staff would bring 
into consideration these other factors, e.g., geographic distribution, limi- 
tation on the number of centers to be established, etc. After considerable 
discussion of the problem, the NACP decided to base its recommendations to 
the Heart Council essentially on scientific merit evaluations. The Heart 
Council, having been strongly indoctrinated with the view that it should 
accept study section scientific merit evaluations, was very resistant to the 
idea of changing the committee's recommendations or its priority arrangements. 
The Heart Institute Director (Dr. Watt) and his staff were under considerable 
pressure to make decisions involving a number of factors in addition to scien- 
tific merit, if the primate center program were to continue to be palatable 
to the Congressional appropriation subcommittees. The following were among 
40 / All on the West Coast. 
41/ From the minutes of the meeting. 
