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$1,000,000 equivalent in rupees have been requested for this purpose and additional increments may be requested in future years to ensure continuity of programs of the AIIS through a transition period after the depletion of the U.S. owned rupee account in India.  Another project planned to begin in FY 1982 is the initial funding for the international salvage effort to preserve the ancient urban site at Moenjodaro, Pakistan.  This project may require several years, and current plans are to apply annually about $1,000,000 equivalent in Pakistani rupees over a four year period.

Increased federal appropriations will be sought in future years for the [[underlined]] International Environmental Science Program [[/underlined]] which also contributes substantially to institutional research progress, and continues to be considered a high priority effort  The Program pursues environmental monitoring at two permanent Smithsonian sites -- the Chesapeake Bay Center and the Tropical Research Institute -- and at five temporary sites.  Over the next five years, an effort will be made to strengthen the research work at these sites to monitor changes in the natural environment and to stay abreast of biological conservation affairs.  Based on an outside review, the Institution has implemented a program of long-term environmental monitoring as an activity which matches the basic sims and purposes of the Institution's research programs.  In addition, resources will be applied toward developing information from computer banks for use by land managers, and toward the establishment of monitoring sites in the Caribbean and China.  More resources will be sought for the biogeographic work being done in the Amazon and for publication and support costs.

[[underlined]] Research Awards Program [[/underlined]].  The FY 1982 budget submission to the Office of Management and Budge contains $300,000 to re-establish the Research Awards Program.  Reestablishment of the program, which operated from FY 1966 through FY 1979, is considered important to the science programs of the Institution.  In years past the science work supported by the program was often the best of the Institution's productivity.  It offered opportunities to individual researchers to work in a collaborative fashion with colleagues located in other institutions and to conduct careful and selective review process by peer group panels consisting of outside noninstitutional specialists.

Prior to FY 1966, the Smithsonian received funds from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for special, high quality research proposals of individual staff members.  In 1964, the Congress prohibited the NSF from making grants for scientific research to other government agencies.  The NSF instituted a further limitation that it would no longer make any grants to any agency or institution receiving direct federal appropriations.  The first appropriation, $350,000, was received and the program operated successfully through FY 1979. No funds were appropriated in FY 1980, and the Institution did not include funds for Research Awards in its FY 1981 request.  Our interest in such a program remains high.  There has been no apparent change in NSF granting policies.  Consequently, we are seeking renewed funding of $300,000, a level which is considered adequate to meet the Institution's award needs.