committee realizes that its lack of direct interaction with the projects’ principal investigators may have caused it to overlook some of the scientific content of the proposed work.

The committee urges the continuation and expansion of a Marine Corps-oriented 6.1 research program, but urges the following actions to help ensure a better outcome:

• Start the selection process sufficiently early that deadlines do not cause hasty actions.

• Institute a standing team that includes the ONR, MCCDC, Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory, operators, and trainers to engage the Marines in program formulation more frequently than annually and to begin to demonstrate to the Marines that basic research can benefit the Corps.

• Engage the skills of ONR program officers and managers in departments other than Code 35 in assisting in the two-way translation between basic research goals and operational needs.

The third action applies to domains beyond 6.1 research; Chapter 9 (in “ Activities of Code 353 Personnel ,” page 73, and “ Other Desirable Activities ,” page 74) expands on this matter.