A total of $1 million has been granted the Joint Center for Urban Research to further planning of the new Venezuelan city, Santa Tome de Guayana.

The Joint Center, a co-operative research venture of Harvard and M.I.T., announced yesterday that it has received $600,000 from the Ford Foundation and $400,000 from the Corporation Venezolana de Guayana.

To reduce Venezuelan dependence on declining oil reserves, the Center is attempting to add a diversified industrial hase to the national economy by developing the Guayana region of Southeastern Venezuela. A key element of the Center's project is the preparation of plans for a new industrial city, Santo Tome de Guayana. Established in July, 1961, the city may reach a population of half a million or more persons.

Assembling scholars from a wide variety of disciplines, the Center attempts to increase research activity in four general areas: the structure, growth, and comparative analysis of cities, urban transportation and technology, urban design, and urban and regional problems in developing countries.

Martin Meyerson, Frank Buckus Williams Professor of City Planning and Urban Research, is director of the program. Participants in the program include Edward C. Banfield, professor of Government, Sam B. Warner, instructor in History, and Serge Chermayeff, former professor of Architecture.

The Joint Center was founded in 1959 by an earlier grant from the Ford Foundation.