The general focus of this work is on the microscopic description of nuclear properties. While nuclei have many degrees of freedom, only a few are important in describing available experimental data, such as low-lying excitation spectra. The theorist must determine which degrees are important and why. Here the focus is on nuclear collective motion, for bosonic degrees of freedom (interacting boson model model-IBM and fermion degrees of freedom (nuclear shell model). Proposed research efforts include (1) an analysis of exact shell-model calculations for various systems to resolve questions concerning the suitability of the S and D pair approach to describing nuclear structure, (2) determination of the 0(6) classical limit of the IBM, (3) improved determination of the IBM parameter valves, (4) investigations of beta decay within the IBM, and (5) extensions of the scheme to odd-A nuclei.