leaders in the fields of fundamental sciences, medical sciences, education, or public affairs, and six of such 12 shall be selected from leading medical or scientific authorities who are outstanding in the study, diagnosis or treatment of the disease or diseases to which the activities of the Institute are directed. In practice, we have found it desirable, in order to have the right mix of scientific disciplines and knowledge on each Council, to appoint eight professional members and four lay members. They serve for staggered 4-year terms. Each year we appoint two new professional and one new lay member. Nominations for Council membership are made by the Institute Director to the Director of NIH. I forward them to the Secretary for approval. The primary considerations in making nominations for the professional members are, of course, the individual's scientific competence, his professional experience, and the breadth of his knowledge of the area with which the Institute is concerned. In an effort to make the Councils as representative as possible, a number of rules have grown up over the years concerning geographic distribution, age, and so forth that must also be taken into consideration. The Secretary, whose approval of the nominations is by no means automatic or perfunctory, also takes into account the fact that the Advisory Councils are, to some extent, policymaking bodies and should therefore be responsive to the Department's needs and missions in relation to national goals. As you know, it is a fairly complicated process, but the results have been good. I have been much impressed by the quality of Council members, their dedication to the mission of the Institute for which they serve, and, not least, by the amount of hard work they do. Senator MAGNUSON. For the record would you supply the number of members of each Advisory Council, the number of those members who are serving more than one term, the number of members of each Council who have full time academic appointments at a university as opposed to practitioners or lay people? The reason I ask these questions is because I wonder whether the people walking among the trees are always the best able to look at the whole forest. Dr. MARSTON. I shall be glad to. (The information requested follows:) There are at present 236 members of Advisory Councils of whom only 19 have served a previous term either on the same or another Council. Five of the 19 are on the Advisory Council of the new National Eye Institute. As there are 12 members on the Councils of the research Institutes who serve for staggered 4-year terms, there are, at any given time, nine members who have had at least a year's previous experience as a Council member. In setting up the new Eye Council it was, therefore, thought prudent to appoint five people with previous Council experience. Each of these five has previously served on the Neurology Council during the period when the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Blindness had responsibility for the programs that are now under the National Eye Institute. Dr. MARSTON. Of the $626 million requested for research grants, nearly $164 million is for the special research grant programs-including $52.9 million for General Research support-and $331 million is for noncompeting research projects which we already have a commitment to support. This leaves $131 million for competing grant applications-an increase of $4.7 million over the amount available for fiscal year 1969 mainly for the new Eye Institute and for family planning research. These noncompeting research projects are the so-called moral commitments. Two major characteristics of the program are, first the peer judgment by outside experts and, second, the concept that it takes more than 1 year to do a reasonable research project. This $331 million is for the noncompeting research projects that we have a commitment to support. SPECIAL RESEARCH GRANT PROGRAMS Senator MAGNUSON. Give the Senator from Hawaii a good example of a special research grant program. Dr. MARSTON. A special research grant program might be like the viral cancer study-a special study on which either the Congress or we have decided to put a special emphasis. Examples are the relationship of viruses to cancer and the myocardial infarction studies which are highly focused. We can give you a list of these. Senator MAGNUSON. Yes. Also I want the record to show that it is my understanding that before these studies are made there is a great deal of discussion with the groups you are talking about, your own people, and people in this particular field, as to whether such studies are desirable. Dr. MARSTON. That is right. Senator MAGNUSON. And the priorities have to be established. Dr. MARSTON. Perhaps, because this is something of a mixture, it would help if I gave four or five of these. Senator MAGNUSON. All right. Dr. MARSTON. The general clinical research centers are in one of the special programs. Then we have the primate centers. We have the heart cooperative drug study where we are doing a special study to find out the effectiveness of various drugs in the prevention of heart attacks. We have dental research institutes. These are all special research programs. We have, as I mentioned earlier, leukemia research centers which make a special attempt to understand and to treat leukemia. Then we have an environmental health sciences institute. These are highly specialized programs. ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH Senator MAGNUSON. Now you fellows are getting into the environmental thing again. Everybody is in that, aren't they? Dr. MARSTON. There is a great need in that. Senator MAGNUSON. I know there is a need. We are not questioning the need. I am just questioning the duplication that goes on. Dr. MARSTON. In the Environmental Health Sciences Institute, we are doing the same thing that we are doing in other areas. We are focusing on research. Senator MAGNUSON. I am sure everybody has to contribute to this overall problem, but I don't like to see so much duplication. Mr. CARDWELL. Senator Magnuson, I think one distinct characteristic you find here that you won't find in the environmental health programs that you have already discussed this far would be the effort here to add to our knowledge about the effect of pollutants and the like on the human being. Senator MAGNUSON. The direct effect. Mr. CARDWELL. Yes, not on corrective measures so much as adding to our general knowledge. Senator MAGNUSON. You are part of this, you are trying to find the effect rather than the prevention. Would that be a fair statement? Dr. MARSTON. We are trying to find out what the effect is of low level, multiple agents, and to design the systems to find out what they do to the body in experimental situations. I think you will hear some fairly exciting reports from Dr. Kotin when he talks about the work we are doing. That is the only Institute that is not on the Bethesda campus. It is in North Carolina. GENERAL RESEARCH SUPPORT Senator MAGNUSON. And $52 million is for general research support. Would you classify that as general research? Dr. MARSTON. The general research support, some years ago the decision was made that if an institution had a large and complicated grant-supported research program it also needed to have some funds to be used for research entirely of its own choosing. Senator MAGNUSON. It has some basic research in it, too, does it not? Dr. MARSTON. It is basic research. It is research support in proportion to the amount of grant-supported research which the Institution does, so that it will have some dollars for which it makes the determination of how best to use them. NONCOMPETING CONTINUATIONS Senator MAGNUSON. And the $331 million is for noncompeting. Those are obligations you made prior to a certain project. Dr. MARSTON. Yes, sir. When we make an award, we say you have X number of dollars for year No. 1, and, if all goes well and if Congress appropriates the money, you can count on getting support in year No. 2 and year No. 3. The review committee and the councils decide not only the level of the award but the time it will take to do the research project. Senator MAGNUSON. Can you put in the record those grants, what they are for? Dr. MARSTON. We have possibly 7,000 noncompeting grants this year. Senator MAGNUSON. Put in the record a statement of some examples of such grants. Dr. MARSTON. All right, sir. This is the research that the investigators in the country have decided is good and Senator MAGNUSON. Then if they want to keep on going? Dr. MARSTON. They come to an end periodically and then they become competitive. It usually takes support for more than 1 year to get a research project done. |