President Howard W. Johnson of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology formed the Review Panel on Special Laboratories in 1969 to examine the relationship between MIT and two of its laboratories: the Lincoln Laboratory and the Instrumentation Laboratory. The panel was asked "to evaluate the implications that the laboratories have for the Institute in its prime responsibility for education and research and in its responsibility for service to the nation." They reviewed the appropriateness of the programs of the laboratories and the relationship to the on-campus research and education programs.

The final report, issued in 1969, contributed to President Howard Johnson's decision that MIT would continue to manage Lincoln Laboratory but the Instrumentation Laboratory would be divested. The committee was then disbanded and the faculty voted in May 1970 to appoint a Standing Committee on Special Laboratories to report on MIRV (multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles) and other classified research on campus.