The report provides an account of how the U.S. Office of Education's discretionary vocational education research program for fiscal year 1974 was planned and implemented under the administration of the new Bureau of Occupational and Adult Education and its component new Division of Research and Demonstration. The report contains basic information on: legislative and regulatory provisions; the planning and procedures leading to the determination of the program priority areas for fiscal year 1974; the processes used to implement the award program for this year; and the award outcomes in terms of an overview of the purposes and expected results of the funded projects, abstracts of the individual projects, and identification of several special projects of national significance. The bulk of the document is made up of abstracts of funded projects in the following areas: (1) curriculum studies, (2) disadvantaged, handicapped, and minority, (3) alternative work experiences, (4) guidance, counseling, placement and followup, and (5) manpower information and systems. (Author/MW)