To encourage such ties, we propose to expand substantially the program for the support of cooperative research projects involving

both university and industrial scientists. Research will be focused on fundamental scientific or engineering questions of a basic or applied nature. The work may be expected to make a long-term contribution toward product or process innovation, or to provide knowledge as a foundation for new or improved technologies.

Small Business Research Efforts

It is well established that there is a high incidence of technological innovation among small and medium sized firms. These firms often involve university scientists and engineers as consultants, thereby linking themselves with university research capabilities. NSF is trying to add to the number of small science and technology firms, add to increase the opportunities for small businesses to make greater contributions to the national research effort by developing innovative products and undertaking high risk, potentially high pay-off research ideas.

In FY 1981, the Foundation's program has been substantially augmented for this purpose, bringing the total amount for small business participation, primarily in applied research efforts, to approximately $13 million.

Technology Centers

Another part of the Industrial Innovation initiative encourages research partnerships between industrial firms and university research. laboratories. The centers established under this program are involved in science and technology that is common to more than one industrial sector, and referred to as 'generic' because it is not product or process specific. Examples include polymers, corrosion prevention and control, and high impluse welding and joining. In many of these generic areas, advances depend on sophisticated understanding of materials, surface corrosion, and heat transfer. One of the most successful centers has been the Polymer Research Center at MIT, where a combination of firms is participating in projects such as mathematical modeling of injection molding, and improving the impact resistance of fiber-reinforced polyster. This Center has made a rapid transition from federal to industrial support and is now receiving no Federal funding.

The Foundation will establish one or more additional generic technology centers in FY 1981, as part of a larger Federal effort of this sort. The centers will be jointly funded by industry and government, and substantial public benefits are expected.

Ocean Margin Drilling

Beyond the continental shelf is an extensive area, the Ocean Margin, which is overlain by an immense thickness of sediment. This area consists of the Continental Slope and the Continental Rise, and

more than half of the world's marine sediments have been deposited there. The margins, which mark the transition between continent and deep ocean, are the "new frontier" of geologic exploration. They represent the largest scientific unknown in geology today, and they are also the largest unexplored area where we might expect to find hydrocarbons. The bulk of the sediments are in water more than 6,000 feet deep, too deep for any existing drill ship to handle.

The FY 1981 budget request includes $10 million, to be matched by the U.S. petroleum industry, to embark on a 10-year Ocean Margin Drilling (OMD) Program. The scientific results from this program are expected to be as revolutionary in scope as those from the NSF funded Ocean Sediment Coring Program.

The Ocean Margin Drilling project will attack the most important unresolved problems in the plate tectonics hypothesis, including those related to continental break-up and ocean basin formation. Besides its great scientific importance, work on the deeply submerged ocean margins will constitute the first major effort to establish the geologic framework for determining the natural resource potential of these areas.

To carry out this program it will be necessary to drill and core up to 20,000 feet in water depths from 6,000 feet to 13,000 feet, with

complete environmental protection, i.e., a riser, well control, and blow-out prevention. Commercial drilling with such environmental protection has not been accomplished in water depths beyond 5,000 feet. No existing deep ocean drilling platform has the ability to meet these requirements, but the government-owned Glomar Explorer has been identified as an excellent candidate for conversion. Funds requested in FY 1981 will take the project up to the point of conversion of the ship, drilling system procurement, and site selection.

Science Education

With the passage of the Department of Education Organization Act, Congress has reaffirmed the role of NSF in Science Education by specifying five areas of responsibility for the Foundation. These are: Scientific career development. Continuing education of scientific personnel. Increasing participation of women, minorities and the handicapped in careers in science. Conduct of R&D applied to science learning at all educational levels, and dissemination of such results. Informing the general public of the nature of science and technology and of attendant values and public policy issues. This is the strongest and most complete articulation of NSF responsibilities that has ever appeared in legislation.

In pursuing these responsibilities the Foundation will place special emphasis on four priority thrusts. The first of these is the improvement of science education for the early adolescent. This

entails focussing continued effort at a point of high opportunity, the junior high/middle school years.

The second of the thrusts is that of improved access of under represented minorities and women to careers in science and engineering. The matter of career access, while related to the early adolescence thrust, is of sufficient importance to continue to address it as a special science education concern.

The third thrust relates to out-of-classroom or informal science learning experiences. This is an important factor in the general development of the public's understanding of science, and is of great importance in interesting and motivating children to study science. The motivational aspects of informal science learning in the current decade are expected to play an important role in the development of the scientists of the future.

This year a fourth priority thrust has been added to the above continuing concerns For the past several years, undergraduate education has been affected by a series of events which have, in a cumulative way, affected the quality of college science teaching. To counter this trend, the Foundation is proposing a major new thrust in FY 1981 in updating the subject-matter competence of college science faculty.

the revitalization of college science teaching.