Private Labs' Plight

I found the statistics presented in your article "Where Does Basic Research Money Go?" (June 27, page 21) most interesting. The role played by nonprofit independent research institutes is not fully appreciated in the federal legislative process, in spite of these figures.

There are 63 nonprofit independent research institutes in the Association of Independent Research Institutes (AIRI). Very high approval rates by the peer-review system (exceeding 90%) of competitive research project grant applications indicate the high quality of the scientists at these institutes. AIRI members are also among the top-ranking institutions in terms of the number of citations to papers published for their scientists. We would like to make these facts more widely known. Our Washington Committee is dedicated to informing the Congress and others as to our purpose and goals with a view to including us in such things as facilities revitalization legislation from which we are usually excluded....