University of Houston, for example, noted that without continued infrastructure support … we will see many young investigators changing the nature of the projects and science they do to areas that have less impact but assure better chances of success. The lack of instruments or the ability to upgrade aging local facilities simply dictates the science done in the future.

In response to the first question asking for thoughts regarding ARIF, many researchers responded with particular concerns concerning policies, costs, and kinds of particular need. Figure D-1 shows the distribution of concerns of researchers regarding ARIF. Many researchers made comments in more than one category.

Below are excerpts of individual responses, grouped by the categories of concern shown in Figure D-1.

“Such instrumentation is more often necessary for the launching of a new field than for the survival of the field. The proper distribution of such instrumentation requires careful planning.

I would hope that federal funding agencies would look at such facilities as regional resources that would meet national needs and fund them accordingly.

FIGURE D-1 Researcher concerns regarding ARIF.