ely academic issue within the foreseeable future,” then described the work ISRF leaders had invested to influence the NCP . ISRF President Ross had collaborated with the NIDR Caries Task Force Chairman Scherp and had submitted a report created by ISRF staff on dental caries research priorities directly to the NIDR Caries Task Force:
Dental caries has been a constant worry to many consumers of sugar and sugar products. To some scientists, dental caries and sugar are considered almost “synonymous.” ISRF, in its concern about this image, has supported research to uncover many of the unknowns, and has kept in close communication with other institutions which concentrate on such research. The National Institute of Dental Research, of the U.S. Public Health Service’s National Institutes of Health, is the most prominent U. S. organization conducting dental caries research on a broad scale. Last year the Institute formed a Dental Caries Task Force to work “toward the goal of virtually eliminating tooth decay in the United States.” Dr. Philip Ross, ISRF President, met with the Dental Caries Task Force and has worked closely with its Chairman, Dr. Henry W. Scherp. Dental Caries Research—1969, prepared several months ago by the staff of ISRF, reviewed current knowledge of the subject and was submitted to the Task Force for its consideration. 
The NIDR Caries Task Force held its conference on dietary research priorities one month later (Table 1) . At the NIDR Role of Human Foodstuffs in Caries Workshop Conference, Caries Task Force Steering Committee member Basil Bibby presented a paper, “Methods for Comparing the Cariogenicity of Foodstuffs,” which reviewed the status of research on experimental models to identify food products harmful to teeth . These models were important, according to Bibby, because it was “desirable to have a relatively speedy and economical method of evaluating cariogenicity, especially of snack-type foods, so that parents can be warned against the more destructive products” . Bibby’s presentation summarized 12 different models to identify the cariogenicity of foods, ranging from “acid production from foods incubated in saliva” to the production of caries in rats, monkeys, and pigs . During the discussion of Bibby’s presentation, Caries Task Force members established that “a quick screening method was needed to provide presumptive evidence of the potential cariogenicity of accepted foods and new products that appear almost daily on the shelves of food markets,” although there were differences of opinion on what the best model would be to screen for cariogenicity . No one argued that the NIDR not pursue standardization of a test that would rank foods on their potential for tooth decay .
Comparison of ISRF and the NIDR Research Priorities
Soon after Nixon’s February 1970 endorsement of the NCP, Scherp began operational planning for program implementation at the NIDR . Research priorities were first published in an omnibus request for contracts (RFC)  titled Opportunities for Participation in the National Caries Program  in early 1971. The NIDR received 112 proposals and funded 17 contracts  totaling US$3 million (US$18.3 million in 2014 dollars) out of the NCP’s budget of US$6 million (US$36.7 million in 2014 dollars) . While the 1971 NCP RFC was the first of several RFCs , it established the NIDR’s research priorities for years .
The research priorities in the 1971 NCP RFC largely reflected the research priorities identified at the October 1969 NIDR Caries Task Force Steering Committee meeting (compare columns C and G in Table 3). Despite being published nearly a year after the NIDR Caries Task Force Role of Human Foodstuffs in Caries Workshop Conference (Table 1), the 1971 NIDR RFC omitted developing a standardized model to identify the cariogenicity of foods as a research priority.
Comparison of the research priorities identified by ISRF and submitted to the NIDR in 1969 (Table 3, column E) with those published by the NIDR in its 1971 NCP RFC (column G) shows that ISRF and the NIDR research priorities were la