Federal expenditures for research, by agency, in the fiscal year 1960

1 Represents estimated obligations based on amounts requested in the Federal budget for fiscal year 1960. 2 Represent funds actually spent in the fiscal year 1960.

Sources:

U.S. Executive Office of the President, Bureau of the Budget. "1961 Federal Budget Midyear Review," Washington, D.C., October 1960, p. 13.

U.S. National Science Foundation. "Federal Funds for Science, VIII. The Federal Research and Development Budget, Fiscal Years 1958, 1959, and 1960." Washington, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1959, pp. 62-63.

U.S. Treasury Department. "Monthly Statement of Receipts and Expenditures of the U.S. Government for the Period From July 1, 1959, Through June 30, 1960." Washington, D.C., pp. 3-8. Prepared for the subcommittee by the Legislative Reference Service, Library of Congress, Dec. 21, 1960.

Data on the proportion of departmental and agency expenditures devoted primarily to research in aging are not available. This is a vacuum which the subcommittee hopes can be filled in the very near future. The only careful breakdown of such expenditures available to the subcommittee was prepared by the National Institutes of Health as of January 31, 1960. Research and training grants in aging amounted to $12 million with commitments as follows:

NIH funds for research and training grants in aging, as of Jan. 31, 1960

Source: Public Health Service Publication No. 740, "Summary of NIH Research Programs in Aging,” 1959, p. 9.

Total expenditures by the National Institutes of Health in fiscal 1960 were $348 million, of which primary and secondary research in aging was thus 3.4 percent.

Outside of the NIH, research investment in aging is notable primarily because of its relative invisibility. An estimated additional $1 million was spent by the Social Security Administration in 1960 and smaller sums by such offices as those of Education, Vocational Rehabilitation, and various divisions of the Public Health Service; an additional $1 million was expended by the Veterans' Administration in its program of research in aging. The Housing and Home Finance Agency, the Department of Labor, the Civil Service Commission, and other departments and agencies add little more to the total. A rough estimate of all investment in research in the field of aging will amount to approximately $15 million.

Although the figures are not strictly comparable, it is possible to secure a general picture of the relationship between expenditures for research in aging and the total Federal funds spent or administered for various programs for older persons-including OASDI and OAA funds. The amounts involved are shown in the following table:

Estimated costs of major program areas for older people, 1960

Source: Federal Council on Aging, "Programs for Older People," report to the President, Dec. 6, 1960, p. 68.

These figures thus indicate that a total Federal outlay of $16.4 billion is accompanied by a research investment of some $15 million, or less than one-tenth of 1 percent. The subcommittee believes that no large business would function efficiently with so small a proportion of its funds used to develop new knowledge and to evaluate its operation.

In the field of mental health a National Governors' Conference in 1954 recommended that 10 percent of a State's mental health budget should be devoted to research and training. This proportion has become an achievable standard in many States and has been a major factor in the reduction of State mental hospital populations in the past 5 years.

It is important also to bear in mind that the special problems of conducting research in this area require a complex methodology unique in the field of research and correspondingly more costly. As one authority has put it:

What seems to be clear is that the field of aging presents particular difficulties which operate to increase the cost of research. At younger ages when children and youth are in school or university, numbers of persons are readily available. But the student of aging has to go out and secure his subjects either through the cooperation of industries and social agencies or by house-to-house canvass. *** generally speaking,

the projects now going on involve extensive cooperation
over a period of time with many people.21

On the basis of such figures and considerations as we have here set forth, the subcommittee believes that a realistic goal for Federal expenditures on research in aging-a goal to be achieved over a period of 5 to 10 years as competent personnel and proper facilities become available would be approximately 1 percent annually of total funds paid out for Federal programs for the aged. Recommendations as to the amounts which could properly be used during the initial 2 years of a carefully planned program of federally supported research on aging, should, we believe, be forthcoming from the administration and it is our intention to request such a recommendation.

A NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF GERONTOLOGY

If we are to keep abreast of and cope with the problems which an increasingly aged population will create for our people and for our society, we should move at once to strengthen the research and research grant activities of the National Institutes of Health in the field of aging.

Our belief that the existing Institutes of Health, in their administrative procedures and organizational aspects, furnish excellent mechanisms for stimulating and supporting training in several important aspects of aging has been strengthened by many observations such as the following:

In my opinion, the Government procedures for awarding grants for research, especially through the National Institutes of Health, is excellent. Adequate funds are available, the panel members passing on the grants are well qualified, objective and fair, and the procedures are very good indeed.Dr. Ross McFarland, Harvard University Department of Industrial Hygiene (Cambridge, Mass.).

In my opinion the procedure for administering Government grants currently employed by the National Institutes of Health is highly commendable, both from the viewpoint of the research investigator and from the standpoint of the efficient use of funds.-Dr. H. H. Draper, Associate Professor of Animal Nutrition, University of Illinois (Urbana).

My colleagues and I found (NIH) helpful, understanding, and effectively organized in our dealings with them. Especially were we impressed with the use of professional persons from the country at large.-Dr. Max Kaplan, Boston University (Massachusetts).

The National Institutes of Health sets a standard for research so that it is difficult to make old mistakes. It has cultured science with a breadth and geographic dispersity that anticipated our urgent need for scientific growth as a nation. At its best our present system allows the random discovery and growth of scientifically elite persons who would not as likely be found in less disperse systems for

21 John E. Anderson, "Research on Aging," Aging in Western Societies, edited by Ernest W. Burgess, professor emeritus of sociology, the University of Chicago: the University of Chicago Press, 1960, p. 374.

support of science.-Dr. Hardin B. Jones, the Arts Center,
University of California (Berkeley).

Beyond the strengthening of existing mechanisms, there is, however, urgent need to create a single mechanism, at the Federal level which would serve to demonstrate to universities, foundations, voluntary organizations, and the public, the importance of these problems to the Nation, and which would properly guide the distribution of funds for the various types of gerontological research which are now almost totally neglected.

Our conclusion is buttressed by comments such as the followingAlthough many significant contributions to our knowledge about aging will continue to be made by individual investigators working in universities, hospitals, and Government laboratories, it is clear that because of the complexity and importance of the problems in gerontology, the organization of research institutes devoted specifically to gerontology will be required. Such an institute will give opportunity for daily contacts between workers in many scientific disciplines and will encourage coordination programs in which the techniques of many different fields of science can be applied to the same subject material.22

What is imperatively needed to achieve a breakthrough is the establishment of a new institute which has its sole objective the promotion of significant gerontological research.

This new organization should be a National Institute of Gerontology of equal status with the existing public health institutes. It should be supported by funds granted by Congress. Its mandate should be to cover adequately all the aspects of gerontology: biological, economic, educational, political, psychological, and sociological. Its operation should include the planning of a program of projects that will significantly advance both basic and applied research.23 *** many leaders in the medical and biological areas of aging are likely to oppose such an institute because they think it might result in the fragmentation and transfer of research in the existing special institutes to such a new institute. I would be opposed to any breakup of the research of any of the existing medically oriented institutes of health. But there are vast gaps in the present aging research. It is my belief that a National Institute of Gerontology should be responsible for covering these gaps and fostering an effective interrelationship among the areas covered by the existing institutes.24

The function of research as conducted by such an institute or center as we suggest would be scientific, analytical, directional, and integrative. In the words of one of the participants in the subcommittee research seminar:

Scientific research, in the long run, must be motivated by more than curiosity, or by the need to construct a closed

22 Nathan W. Shock, "Trends in Gerontology," 2d ed., Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1957,

p. 173.

23 Professor Emeritus Ernest W. Burgess, University of Chicago.

24 Prof. Wilbur J. Cohen, the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor).

system of congruent propositions and general theory. It
must also, in order to survive and grow, be useful in the
lives of the members of society. What we are interested in
here and now is the contribution that research can make to
the solution and alleviation of the problems associated with
the process of aging, ranging from cell change in the indi-
vidual organism to the role change in the social body. An
organization like an institute of gerontology, I think, would
be the best means by which such research could be stimu-
lated and coordinated, without the duplication and gaps so
often resulting from the lack of such stimulation and coor-
dination.

The Government mechanism, as we have suggested, should have the following characteristics:

1. It should be so located, so financed, and so directed as to command the same prestige as do our excellent National Institutes of Health.

2. Like the existing national institutes, it should conduct research on its own, particularly as regards what we have described as policy research, but the greater part of the funds allocated to it should be spent in the form of research and training grants-with emphasis on block grants-to universities and other public nonprofit organizations willing to undertake meaningful research, training programs, and demonstrations in the field of gerontology.

3. Like the existing national institutes, it should have a council to consider and pass on all contemplated grants and research projects. The council should be composed of outstanding social scientists and laymen, all of whom have demonstrated interest in, and knowledge of, the problems created by the aging process and it should have, as exofficio members, representatives of other Federal agencies concerned with aging.

4. Its research program-both its own and that of its granteesshould emphasize the interdisciplinary approach and give particular attention to the social sciences.

5. It should establish and maintain a scientific environment of high order both intramurally and with respect to its outside grants for research and training.

It is therefore our recommendation that the Congress promptly establish a National Institute of Gerontology with sufficient funds and staff to give the national leadership and recognition which research in the field of aging requires and deserves. The establishment of this institute should in no way reduce the obligation of existing institutes to support those areas of aging within their immediate scientific interests. Rather it should add to the total national investment in promoting the health, welfare, and productive ability of an increasingly aging population.

SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS ON RESEARCH

1. The Federal Government should immediately step up its support for research in aging and for the training of personnel to conduct such research. As personnel and facilities become available, Federal expenditures for such research should approximate 1 percent of all