This series contains the subject files of Research Advisers Ernest Stern (originally titled Senior Adviser) and, beginning in April 1974, Benjamin B. King. After King left the position in March 1977, Ian M.D. Little and Bela Belassa served as acting Research Adviser until the appointment of Shankar Acharya in July 1979. The files include the advisers' correspondence with President McNamara, the Vice President of Development Policy, the directors and staff of the Development Policy departments, members ofthe Research Committee, and non-Bank research professionals. This series also includes some correspondence of the Research Committee secretary. A file on the early administration of the World Bank's research program, 1971 - 1974, includes a history and description of the research program, outlines of research priorities, and memoranda on the policy of long-term consultant appointments funded from the External Research Budget.

Other files contain: tables and correspondence regarding the research budget and the funding of specific projects, July 1971-June 1973; correspondence on rejected proposals, October 1971 - May 1974, including comments on the project proposals and memoranda explaining why specific research proposals were rejected; agenda (May 1971 - June 1979) and minutes ( April 1971 - October 1974; January 1975 - March 1979) of Research Committee meetings; minutes of Review Panel meetings, 1972 - 1978; correspondence regarding the size and membership of the Research Committee, 1971 - 1979; correspondence regarding research proposals (instructions and deadlines for submitting proposals, memoranda conveying the decisions of the Research Committee, lists of proposals each department planned to submit in the coming fiscal year), 1972 - 1974; comments on drafts of the annual report to the Executive Directors on the research program and memoranda summarizing the response of the Directors to the report, 1973 - 1974; correspondence regarding the evaluation of urban development projects and the financing of these evaluations, 1972 - 1975; correspondence with non-Bank personnel, 1971 - 1974 (filed under Outside Correspondence); excerpts from Research Committee minutes and memoranda on funding the sector research program, 1973 - 1977; and information regarding the Development Policy staff's participation and attendance at the International Meetings of the Directors of Development Research and Training Institutes, OECD [Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development] in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, August 1972, and in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, August 1974.