[ih] misc questions about 1970s/1980s contracts and funding

[Steve Crocker]

I can answer one or two of your questions.

N00039-82-C-0235 designates a contract (C) written by one of the U.S. Navy
contracting offices (N00039) in fiscal year 1982 (1 Oct 1981 to 30 Sept
1982).  0235 is the sequence number.  They start fresh each year.  I think
N00039 is the Naval Information Warfare Systems Command.

I have no idea what K would mean instead of C.  I've seen Q for requests
for quotations and G for grants.  (Apparently G is used for something else
these days or maybe it's a broader catch-all.)

DARPA, originally called ARPA, is the Defense Advanced Research Projects
Agency.  It funds research.  When ARPA was created, it was given authority
to spend money and initiate research, but the agency did not have a
contracting office.  This was a feature, not a bug.  Instead, it was given
authority to use any of the contracting offices in other agencies
throughout the government.

To initiate (or extend) funding of a research activity, DARPA sends money
to the agency that will write the contract.  It uses a document unique to
DARPA to forward the funds and specify who will be doing the research.  The
document is called an ARPA Order.  These have short numbers with no
substructure.  (Or, at least they did when I worked there many years ago.)

It is entirely possible for a single ARPA Order to cause the creation of
multiple contracts.

As far as actually getting hold of any of these documents, that's another
matter.  Some are in the National Archives, but an awful lot is not.

Steve




On Wed, Feb 2, 2022 at 6:41 PM Jeremy C. Reed via Internet-history <
internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:

> I am trying to understand contracts and funding from around 1970s. early
> 1980's such as from National Science Foundation, U.S. Department
> of Energy, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DoD) ARPA Order,
> IBM fellowships, etc.
>
> 1) For NSF, what does "MCS" mean? Maybe it is larger project like
> "Multichannel Seismic"?
>
> 2) What do the ending numbers mean for NSF contracts, such as
> NSF MCS74-07644-A03 versus NSF MCS74-07644-A04?
>
> 3) What does it mean when same funding contract number is used for
> apparently unrelated projects spread out over years?  I seem to find a
> common link of a common PhD/Masters advisor.
>
> 4) Why would an ARPA "proposal" have a "DTIC Selected" date
> stamped on it that is many months after work has already been
> going on and even after releases?
>
> 5) What does it mean when the same "ARPA Order" number is used with
> different contract or grant numbers? (Like ARPA Order No. 4031 with both
> N00039-80-K-0649 and N00039-82-C-0235 which appear to be different
> years too. What does this numbering mean?)
>
> 6) Where can I download old NSF proposals, contracts, reports?
>
> 7) Where can I download old DoE proposals, contracts, reports?
>
> 8) Where can I download old DoD proposals, contracts, reports?
> I used to be able to download some via http://www.dtic.mil/
>
> 9) Where can I download old ARPA "Order" proposals, contracts, reports?
>
> 10) What is an Government "Accession" number and how does it relate to a
> Report Number?
>
> 11) Where can I study more about this?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Jeremy C. Reed
>
> echo Ohl zl obbx uggc://errqzrqvn.arg/obbxf/csfrafr/ | \
>  tr "Onoqrsuvxzabcefghl" "Babdefhikmnoprstuy"
> --
> Internet-history mailing list
> Internet-history at elists.isoc.org
> https://elists.isoc.org/mailman/listinfo/internet-history
>