The contractor will carry out Cycle III of the National Survey of Academic Research Instruments and Instrumentation Needs, a sample survey of higher education institutions that collects data on science and engineering research equipment. A Baseline Survey was conducted in 1982/83 followed three years later by an update Cycle II study. Tasks involved in Cycle III include conduct of data collection activities, tabulation of data results, provision of technical support as required for the National Science Foundation's (NSF's) own analytical uses of the data, and production of a final analytical report summarizing the results of the study. Section 7 of Public Law 96-44 directs NSF to "...develop indices, correlates, or other suitable measures or indicators of the status of scientific instrumentation in the United States and of the current and projected need for scientific and technologic- al instrumentation." This project, initiated in response to the above mandate, provides measures of equipment status in the academic sector.
