Proceedings from an NPRDC/ONR Workshop: Improving the Research Transition Process Held at San Diego, California on 23-24 May 1984

The issue faced in this symposium was how to ensure that behavioral science research ultimately serves the Navy's primary mission. Given that a basic objective of Navy R&D laboratories is to generate a technology base that is both useful and used, there must always be a close link between R&D products and operational requirements. However, even more than this, there must be clear understanding of how R&D products can be directed at targets of opportunity in the user organizations and successfully implemented. These areas remain an ongoing challenge for both Navy R&D laboratories and the operational community. The intent of this conference was to have a diverse group of researchers, managers, and headquarters managers discuss the issues associated with improving research transition. The issues included both the transition through the 6.1 to 6.4 arenas as well as the transition of mature technologies into user organizations. Although the focus was the manpower, personnel, and training areas, many of the issues are generic to a spectrum of R&D efforts.