October 22-November 7, 1975. A 5-person Soviet harvesting and reforestation team traveled throughout the southern part of the United States, including North Carolina, Florida, and New Orleans, Louisiana.

May 1-15, 1976. The Third Meeting of the Working Group on Forestry was held In the Soviet Union, attended by a 3-person U.S. ecosystem team, which also visited laboratories in Pushkino, Kharkov, Volograd, and Moscow.

September 26-October 8, 1976. Three U.S. fire specialists visited Moscow and the State Committee; one then traveled to the fire laboratory in Leningrad while two went to the fire laboratory in Pushkino.

September 26-October 5, 1976. A 2-person Soviet insect and disease team visited Washington, D.C. and insect and disease laboratories in Hamden, Connecticut; Portland and Corvallis, Oregon; and Berkeley, California.

May 15-30, 1977. The Fourth Meeting of the Working Group on Forestry was held in Washington, D. C. A 3-person Soviet team including fire and harvesting specialists then visited fire research areas in Idaho and Montana.

August 21-30, 1977. A 2-person Soviet forest genetics, afforestation, and seed technology team visited Washington, D.C.; Macon, Georgia; Placerville, California; and Lincoln, Nebraska.

May 7-June 4, 1978. A 3-person insect and disease team (2 Forest Service, 1 university) met with the State Committee on the advantages and disadvantages of various bacterial, viral, and fungal pathogens being used against forest pests. They also visited laboratories in Leningrad, Pushkino, Karkov, Gomel, and Irkutsk.

September 1-15, 1978. A 3-person U.S. harvesting and mechanization team visited Moscow and field sites in Irkutsk, Bratsk, Vladmir, Riga, and Leningrad.

April 14-22, 1979. One Forest Service entomologist traveled to the Soviet Union to assist in the preparation of forest insect proposals for cooperation between U.S. and Soviet scientists for the period 1979-1980.

May 28-June 8, 1979. A 7-person U.S. team (4 Forest Service, 1 Science and Education Administration, 2 university) attended the fifth meeting of the Working Group on Forestry in Moscow. Other areas visited were Pushkino, Leningrad and Irkutsk.

April 11-27, 1980. A 2-person Soviet harvesting and reforestation team visited Washington D.C., the Southeast, and the Lake States. They viewed research and management activities at Forest Service, university, and industry field locations.

May 23-June 14, 1981. A 4-person U.S. insect and disease team (3 Forest Service, I state) visited Moscow and Kharkov for field work on integrated pest management of hardwood defoliating insects, including the gypsy moth.

During the 9 years of activity by the Working Group on Forestry, we sent a total of 28 Forest Service participants and 11 other participants to the Soviet Union. This is an average of 3.1 Forest Service and 1.2 other participants per year.

Total days spent on visits to the Soviet Union were 508 by Forest Service (an average of 56 per year) and 188 by other participants (an average of 21 per year).

We estimate that travel and subsistence costs for Forest Service participants averaged $8000 per year. This does not include salary costs. Travel and subsistence for other participants cost about 1/3 as much, or $2400 per year, but these costs were not paid with Forest Service funds.

We consider that the Forest Service received benefits in all five areas covered by this exchange, and that these benefits easily justified the costs of participation.

Benefits were the greatest in the areas of reforestation and pests and diseases. One example is the exchange of forest tree germplasm in the form of seeds, cuttings, and seedlings. Through this agreement we were able to continue our longstanding germplasm exchange with the Soviets. This has included over 100 species, many of them important components of windbreaks in semiarid regions of the United States and the U.S.S.R. We have also exchanged germplasm of commercially important conifer species.

In the insect and disease area, a single visit in 1981 resulted in the collection of 1500 gypsy moth larvae and parasites as part of research on natural enemies of this devastating pest. At the time the agreement was suspended in 1982, we were preparing very promising joint studies with the Soviets on bird and mammal predation of the gypsy moth.

In the fire area, we obtained a highly maneuverable Soviet smokejumper parachute for testing under U.S. firefighting conditions. In harvesting, we exchanged techniques and designs for removal of small diameter trees. In the area of biogeocoenosis, we exchanged basic research information and techniques for studying forest ecosystem dynamics. In all areas, we obtained Soviet scientific literature which was previously unavailable or unknown to us.

We are not certain what aspects of this agreement were most beneficial to the Soviet Union, but they have continued to show great interest in our work on reforestation, fire control, and harvesting. We suspect that the benefits to them were equivalent to those we received.

This is in response to your letter requesting a report on the
cooperative agreement between the National Bureau of Standards
(NBS) and the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (ASUSSR) for
inclusion in the official record of your forthcoming hearing on
U.S.-Soviet exchange.

I am enclosing a report on the NBS-ASUSSR Memorandum on Cooperation; the program's purpose and activities; its scope, size and cost; and its benefits to the U.S. and USSR. The report provides the information you requested in your letter.

If you have additional questions, Dr. Edward Brady, our Associate Director for International Affairs, will be happy to assist you. He can be reached on 921-3641.

Sincerely,

B. Hinkles.

Ernest Ambler

Director

Enclosure

Cc:

Honorable Benjamin A. Gilman, Ranking Minority Member

REPORT ON

COOPERATION BETWEEN THE NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS
AND THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE USSR

PREPARED FOR

THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON EUROPE AND THE MIDDLE EAST
COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS

U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
WASHINGTON, DC

July 17, 1986

I. Background

The National Bureau of Standards has a long history of cooperation with various institutions of the USSR, both bilaterally and through the mechanisms of various international organizations. Because of the broad scope of NBS technical activities, no single institution in the USSR can be termed "the" counterpart of NBS. In the field of measurement and standardization, the interests of NBS overlap with those of several laboratories of the State Committee for Standards of the Council of Ministers of the USSR (commonly called Gosstandart). Throughout most of the history of NBS, occasional exchanges of visits and operation of joint projects have taken place with Gosstandart laboratories. Both NBS and Gosstandart have representatives on the International Committee of Weights and Measures, one of the organizations established by the Treaty of the Meter to help the nations of the world establish international agreement on physical quantities and the units by which such quantities should be measured.

However, because of the range of assignments within the mission of NBS, much of the research activity of NBS is in scientific fields addressed by the institutes of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, commonly designated ASUSSR. Of the more than 120 institutes of the Academy, approximately one-third carry out research in which the NBS staff has a strong interest. In principle, therefore, NBS cooperation with the ASUSSR opens the doors of many research institutes with many thousands of research scientists to NBS people, while the Soviet scientists are given access only to the work of a single research establishment.

The NBS-ASUSSR Memorandum on Cooperation originated with a proposal made by the Soviet side to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences that the U.S. academy organize a program of cooperation between NBS and Soviet research institutions, perhaps under the misapprehension that the NAS had some supervisory responsibility for NBS and other research

laboratories of the United States.

Upon being informed that the NAS had no role to play in such a cooperative program, the ASUSSR proposed to the Director of NBS that a direct agency-to-agency program be organized. After exchanges of drafts and negotiation of wording, the "Memorandum on Cooperation" was jointly signed in Moscow by NBS Director Ernest Ambler and USSR Academy Vice President Yevgeny Velikhov on December 13, 1978. The initial duration was five years, and the period has since been extended for an additional five years, running now until December 12, 1988.

II. Essential elements of the Memorandum

The introductory clause of the memorandum states that the two sides desire "to facilitate the expansion of scientific cooperation for mutual benefit" and goes on to list the following fields of scientific activity as appropriate: thermal physics and thermodynamics, materials science, spectroscopy, chemistry and chemical kinetics, and cryogenic science. Other fields may be included by mutual agreement. The specific forms of cooperation are to be exchanges of scientists, exchanges of scientific and technical information and documentation, joint meetings and seminars, joint research projects, or other mutuallyagreed means.

The Memorandum calls for the two sides to exchange up to five scientists annually from each side, with a total length of stay of up to 14 manmonths and shorter visits for up to 10 "leading specialists" from each side for a total length of stay of up to 6 man-months. In practice, these limits have never been approached; in any year the quotas have been from 0 percent to about 50 percent filled.

Costs of these exchange visits are apportioned on a "receiving-side pays" basis; that is, the sending side pays for international transportation to Washington or Moscow, and thereafter the host institution pays lodging, subsistence, and in-country travel. The host also covers the cost of any materials or equipment used in joint research.

The Director of NBS personally supervises the scientific content and conduct of this cooperative program and approves all USSR visitors received, as well as all NBS staff going to Moscow. Administrative procedures are handled by the Office of the NBS Associate Director for International Affairs and on the Soviet side, by the Foreign Department of the Academy of Sciences.

III. Activities under the program

Following signing of the Memorandum in December 1978, exchange visits began immediately, and scientists from each side have been sent to the other during most, but not all, of the fiscal years since. Table I on the next page shows the level of the exchange visits since the beginning of the program.