OFFICE OF THE UNDER SECRETARY OF DEFENSE
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20301

        

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RESEARCH AND

ENGINEERING §$ JAN 1978

Professor Joshua Lederberg

Department of Genetics

Stanford University School
of Medicine

Stanford, CA 94305

Dear professoP-Sederbers: —Jety:

This is in response to your 7 November 1977 letter concerning your
thoughts on DoD support of research at universities. I was partic~
ularly pleased to see that many of your suggestions coincide with
my own perceptions of what DoD's role should be in support of the
national research effort.

I agree with you that we should approach the problem of strengthen-
ing DoD's ties with universities very carefully and prevent the

Sine wave effects that some of the past federal programs seemed to
generate. To avoid such problems, you might be interested to know
that we plan to have an Oversight Committee for the new DoD-university
program (DSEP). I will forward your excellent suggestions to that
group for their consideration.

Your comment concerning research in tropical diseases is cogent. You
will be pleased to know that our substantial funding in this area

has been maintained and, for example, will increase 6% over inflation
in the next year to enable our military laboratories, particularly the
overseas laboratories of the Navy and the Army, to gontinue their vital
work on tropical diseases of military significance. The World Health
Organization has taken note of our capability and may increase use of
these labs as a source of training and research experience for health
professionals. Approximately half of our current research on infec-
tious diseases is now done collaboratively between military labora-
tories and medical school investigators.

Your last comment concerning the somewhat difficult task of making
operational people realize the importance of new technology is well
appreciated by me and my staff since the primary function of my office,
that of Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering
(Research and Advanced Technology) is to foster new ideas and help
along technology transfer. In that capacity, I agree with you that
it is sometimes difficult to make others realize potential threats
which are either long range or not easily recognizable.

Thank you again for your thoughts, and I certainly would appreciate
your continued interest in this matter.

Sincerely,

a)

Ni A

   

Ruth M. Davis

Deputy Under Secretary of Defense
for Research & Engineering
(Research & Advanced Technology)