Teleprocessing in Scientific Information Exchange: The NSF Role in Innovative Research

The essence of technology transfer is the effective passing of information, which requires that the receiving party accept new-to-him information in organized form. This is no small requirement in a period of exponentially increasing volumes of scientific observations and their technical applications. Traditional methods of scientific and technical communications will not be adequate to assure timely and discriminating dissemination of this information, and the National Science Foundation has established a program to support research in novel methods. Special emphasis is placed on use of audio and video telecommunications, computers and automatic means of recording, storing, disseminating and retrieving information. The author will cite specific examples of projects for which grants have been made and will describe the directions in which the NSF hopes to stimulate research and development.