Key FY 1981 objectives related to the priority thrusts of science

education include:

Support research on how science and mathematics are learned

and the development of more effective instructional techniques and materials.

O Provide high quality training in science for specially selected
students in programs ranging from the junior high school
through the graduate levels.

- Provide for subject-matter refresher courses for both pre-college

and undergraduate science faculty.

Assist in the improvement of undergraduate science instruction

at 2-year and 4-year colleges.

- Improve the public's understanding of science and how it
affects their daily lives.

International Science Activities

Many NSF science activities are international in scope, and international cooperation in science has become increasingly important in the past decade. In FY 1981, the Foundation will establish a

cooperative research effort with the People's Republic of China. NSF also hopes to increase its cooperative work with the advanced countries of Western Europe. Our experience in the Antarctic for the past 24 years, and in special projects such as the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, has demonstrated that science can maintain effective communications even in times of severe political stress among nations. NSF hopes to continue to conduct a wide range of research support activities that will involve the cooperation of many nations for the benefit of all peoples.

Conclusion

The importance of science and technology to the economic well being of this country has been made more and more apparent in recent years. The Administration has recognized this importance, and has provided, for three years in a row, for significant increases for research, and for basic research in particular. NSF, with its special significance for Federal support of basic research, has an increasingly important role to play.

This commitment was reiterated in the 1981 budget message of the President. Despite the effort to keep the Federal budget from rising in real terms, it was deemed important to increase funds in a

few critical areas. Basic research was one of four such areas identified by the President. In his words, "We benefit today ... from the investments in science made decades ago." The FY 1981 NSF Budget reflects this investment concept, and is worthy of Congressional concurrence, in order to insure that we shall reap similar returns tomorrow. A summary budget table is attached to my statement. I urge your support of the full program, and stand ready to answer any questions.

Includes proposed supplemental of $840,000 for increased pay costs of Navy personnel engaged in the U.S. Antarctic Program

and excludes $0.584.000 transferred to the Department of Education.

Mr. BROWN. Thank you very much, Dr. Atkinson.

I want to welcome another early riser, Mr. Hollenbeck. [Laughter.] Dr. Atkinson, I'm going to ask a question which may come up in the general discussion of the Foundation's budget. The purpose of these hearings, of course, is to provide the best possible defense or the ammunition for the best possible defense of this budget in the authorization process as well, of course, as the ammunition for the best possible attack on the budget if that should seem to be necessary. One of the questions that will come up stems from the success of the Foundation. I guess, as much as anything in the proposed increases. University enrollments are actually declining and faculties are not going through a growth period.

Yet, most of your budget goes to the academic communities. How do we reconcile these two curves, the curve of growth for the Foundation and the money which is channeled through it to the universities and a decline in the growth in both students and faculties in the universities?

Dr. ATKINSON. Mr. Brown, let me note first that college enrollments are still on a rising curve that won't reach its peak until 1981. From 1981 to 1983, those enrollments will experience a minimal decrease. But from 1983 to 1985, there will be a steep drop of about 22 percent. The universities still have a cushion of 3 years before enrollments will begin to drop sharply.

That is not an answer to your question, but it does indicate that, even though we refer to those problems today, we are not yet experiencing the college enrollment decreases that will occur in the mideighties.

As I said earlier, NSF's role in the support of university-based research is greater today than it was 10 years ago; that is a factor of NSF's growth. I think it is also clear that this country must depend in the future on universities to support research in a way that is divorced from enrollment pressures. About 48 percent of the Federal basic research effort is conducted in the universities. We must continue to support that portion in the future and within the framework of declining enrollments.

What I mean to say is that we can no longer think of research being linked directly to student enrollment. It is a problem for Federal policy, but it is a more serious problem, I think, for State policy because so much of State support has been tied by particular formulas to enrollment.

There is no question in my mind that we should continue the interactive relationship between research and teaching, but I would argue that the National Science Foundation, outside its science education programs, is in fact buying basic research. And we are buying that research in the university environment because we think that is a particularly important environment in which to stimulate and ensure creative developments.

It is not as though we think of the dollars supporting basic research as having a secondary component in the support of education. We know that they do, but we are supporting the research in the universities because we believe in the interplay where research stimulates education. Education in turn stimulates the quality and innovations of