The Committee on Developing a Federal Materials Facilities Strategy was appointed by the National Research Council (NRC) in response to a request by the federal agencies involved in funding and operating multidisciplinary user facilities for research with synchrotron radiation, neutrons, and high magnetic fields. Starting in August 1996, a series of conversations and meetings was held among NRC staff and officials from the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (Department of Commerce), and the National Institutes of Health. The agencies were concerned that facilities originally developed to support research in materials science were increasingly used by scientists from other fields-particularly the biological sciences-whose research was supported by agencies other than those responsible for the facilities. This trend, together with the introduction of several new, large user facilities in the last decade, led the agencies to seek advice on the possible need for interagency cooperation in the management of these federal research facilities.