(a) Any Government-owned contractor operated laboratory, energy research center, or other laboratory performing functions under contract to the Administration may, with the approval of the Administrator, use a reasonable amount of its operating budget for the funding of employee-suggested research projects up to the pilot stage of development. It shall be a condition of any such approval that the director of the laboratory or center involved form an internal review mechanism for determining which employee-suggested projects merit funding in a given fiscal year; and any such project may be funded in one or more succeeding years if the review process indicates that it merits such funding.

(b) Each director of a laboratory or center specified in subsection (a) of this section shall submit an annual report to the Administrator on projects being funded under this section; and on completion of each such project shall submit a report to the Technical Information Center of the Administration for inclusion in its data base.