$10 Million Indonesian Project Tops '87 Funding

A $10 million contract from the government of Indonesia to Harvard's Institute for International Development (HIID) tops the list of University expenditures under non-federally sponsored projects during the last fiscal year.

According to a report released last month that details the University's expenditures during this period, Harvard's expenditures under non-federally sponsored projects from June, 1986 to June, 1987 totalled $59.27 million. This figure represents an increase of 11 percent over the $53.36 million Harvard spent during the previous fiscal year.

The $9,997,200 contract from the Indonesian government is part of a longstanding HIID involvement in several Indonesian government projects to spur rural development, improve its industrial and trade policies, and institute tax reform, HIID officials said yesterday.

Government Funded

"Most of our activities there are directly funded by the government," said Economics Lecturer Donald R. Snodgrass, an HIID fellow.

An unspecified portion of the $10 million contract is going to fund the Harvard-run Center for Policy and Implementation Studies (CPIS), an interdisciplinary think-tank that seeks to provide government policymakers with information on the effects government policies have on rural parts of Indonesia.

"It's an Indonesian staff that helps policymakers know what's really going on in that country," Snodgrass said. "The most essential part [of the CPIS] is this field inquiry aspect--finding out what really happens and making modifications in light of this."

"Involvement in this sort of thing makes development a very live thing," Snodgrass said.

Officials in the Indonesian Embassy in Washington could not be reached for comment.

HHS Biggest Sponsor

Harvard received federal funding during the past fiscal year totalling $141.4 million, representing 18 percent of the university's total budget.

The biggest government benefactor this year was the Department of Health and Human Services, which sponsored projects totalling $93.4 million. Most of this went to fund research in the Medical School and in the School of Public Health. That total includes research for AIDS.

The agency with the next largest total in sponsorship moneys was the National Science Foundation, which funded $17.4 million research. Some $13 million went to research in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) and the Division of Applied Sciences.

An additional $8.5 million came from the Department of Defense, a nearly 50 percent increase in funding since last year. Over $7 million of this went to fund research in the Division of Applied Sciences, the FAS, and the Kennedy School of Government.