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. The Academic Research Enterprise within the industrialized Nations: Comparative Perspectives Report of a Symposium . The Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable National Academy of Sciences National Academy of Engineering Institute of Medicine 2101 Constitution Avenue, NW Washington DC 20418 National Academy Press Washington, D.C. March 1990
THE GOVERNMENT-UNIVERSITY-INDUSTRY RESEARCH ROUNDTABLE The Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable is sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and Institute of Medicine. The Research Roundtable was created in 1984 to provide a forum where scientists, engineers, administrators, and policy-makers from government, university, and industry can meet on an ongoing basis to explore ways to improve the productivity of the nation's research enterprise. The object is to try to understand issues, to inject imaginative thought into the system, and to provide a setting for discussion and the seeking of common ground. The Roundtable does not make recommendations, nor offer specific advice. It does develop options and bring all interested parties together. The uniqueness of the Roundtable is in the breadth of its membership and in the continuity with which it can address issues. THE NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government established in 1950 to promote and advance scientific progress in the United States, primarily by sponsoring scientific and engineering research and by supporting selected activities in science and engineering education. NSF considers proposals for support in any field of science, including but not necessarily limited to, astronomy, atmospheric sciences, biological and behavioral sciences, chemistry, computer sciences, earth sciences, engineering, information science, materials research, mathematical sciences, oceanography, physics, and social sciences. In deciding which proposals to support, NSF relies heavily on the advice and help of advisory committees, outside reviewers, and other experts to ensure that NSF reaches fair and knowledgeable judgments. These scientists, engineers, and educators come from colleges and universities, nonprofit research and educational organizations, industry, and other governmental agencies. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 90-60989 International Standard Book Number 0-309-04249-6 S141 Printed in the United States of America
FOREWORD National policies and programs for scientific and technological research are increasingly formulated within an international context. With the growing economic and scientific strength of European and Pacific Rim nations, research competition is intensifying. Research decisions made within any one nation rapidly influence research agendas worldwide. As a consequence, scientists, engineers, administrators, and policy-makers in government, universities, and industry require better understanding of the research systems of other nations. Many challenges now confront the research community worldwide. While the research agenda for scientists and engineers is expanding and ever more exciting, changes are occurring within the larger social, political, and economic environment in which research is conducted. Advances in fundamental knowledge are becoming more relevant to national economic competitiveness. Urgent global problems, such as ozone depletion and acid rain, require international collaboration in many scientific and technological fields. New communication technologies both intensify competition and allow for greater research cooperation. At the same time, however, expensive new scientific instrumentation escalates the costs of research and in several countries there is a narrowing pipeline of new scientists and engineers. Each nation is responding to these challenges with a distinct system for organizing research activity, resulting from different histories, cultures, and traditions. With respect to the conduct of basic research, for example, the industrialized nations differ widely in the respective research roles of universities, governmental research institutes, and industrial laboratories. Furthermore, each nation has produced a unique political arrangement for the allocation of economic resources in support of research. As the United States develops science and technology policies appropriate for the world of the 21st century, we need to understand better the historical factors which produced these diverse research systems and the social, political and economic changes now reshaping all national research capacities. We hope that the information presented within this symposium report contributes to that learning process. In, ~ James D. Ebert Chairman, Government University-Industry Research Roundtable =f Erich Bloch Director, National Science Foundation and Chairman, Roundtable Working Group on the Academic Research Enterprise
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The Research Roundtable and the National Science Foundation wish to thank Mark B. Adams, James R. Bartholomew, Alan D. Beyerchen, Robert Fox, Roger L. Geiger, and Sheldon Rothblatt for their informative and candid symposium presentations. In their richly- described portrayals of decision-making throughout the past century, these six historians of science and higher education provide a necessary historical context for analyzing current trends in the research systems of the United States, Japan, the Soviet Union, Great Britain, Germany, and France. Special thanks go to Nathan Reingold and Mary lo Nye for chairing the symposium sessions and to T. Alexander Pond, a member of the Roundtable Working Group on the Academic Research Enterprise, for his salient commentary as a panel discussant. Thanks also go to the staff members who organized the symposium and prepared this report, especially John P. Campbell, project director for the Roundtable Working Group on the Academic Research Enterprise, and Ronald J. Overmann, director of the NSF Program on the History and Philosophy of Science. As conveyed in this report, the symposium discussions generated useful, sometimes controversial, insights into the worldwide prospects for university-based research in the sciences and technology. The symposium participants-speakers and guests made an important contribution to the policy debate in the United States on the future of the U.S. academic research enterprise. STAFF RESEARCH ROUNDTABLE DON I. PHILLIPS, Executive Director, Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable JOHN P. CAMPBELL, Senior Program Officer, Roundtable Working Group on the Academic Research Enterprise SUSAN LEVIN, Editorial Consultant SUSAN TAWFIK, Administrative Secretary NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION RONALD J. OVERMANN, Program Director, History & Philosophy of Science . 1V
PREFACE The Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable was organized in l9g4 under the aegis of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. It is governed by a Council of 2S distinguished scientists, engineers, administrators, and policy-makers from government, universities, and industry. Its purpose is to create a national forum to air the issues that affect the nation's research enterprise, inject imaginative thought into understanding the issues, and explore strategies and options for improving the future of U.S. scientific research. In 1987, the Roundtable Council inaugurated a comprehensive review of the U.S. academic research enterprise. The Council assignee' this review to a Working Group of government officials, corporate executives, university administrators, and scientists. The charge to the Working Group was to examine current trends in the U.S. academic research enterprise, predict the impact of the trends on the future of the enterprise, and explore options for the future. To gain an international perspective on the issues addressed by the Working Group, the Research Roundtable and the National Science Foundation co-sponsored a symposium entitled "The University Research Enterprise within the Industrialized Nations: Comparative Perspectives," held on March 23, 1989 at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C. The purposes of the symposium were to: Compare the histories of the larger national research systems the United States, Japan, the Soviet Union, Great Britain, Germany, and France with special emphasis on university research; Examine the current pressures placed on the research system of each nation; and Explore how each nation is responding to these pressures. The symposium was organized into two panel sessions devoted to reviewing the histories of six national research systems. A morning session focused on the research systems of the relative "newcomers" to science and technology, the United States, Japan, and the Soviet Union. An afternoon session focused on the research systems of the relatively older research systems of Great Britain, Germany, and France. Panel speakers included historians of science and higher education. The panel presentations were followed by comments from discussants and other symposium guests. Participants included senior staff within federal agencies and congressional committees, representatives from professional societies and universities, scientific advisors from national embassies, and staff from the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Medicine, and the National Research Council. An agenda for the symposium, as well as the names and affiliations of symposium participants, is found in the Appendix. For a discussion of the Phase One project of the Working Group on the Academic Research Enterprise, see Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable, Science and Technology in the Academic Enterprise: Status, Trends, and Issues' Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1989. v
This report is organized in two parts. Part One summarizes the symposium discussion regarding current challenges confronting the research systems of all nationse Part Two contains the individually-authored texts of the symposium presentations historical perspectives on the evolution of research and higher education systems within the United States, Japan, the Soviet Union, Great Britain, Germany, and France. The text of the symposium presentation on Germany was revised in January 1990 to address challenges confronting the German research system in response to political events in Eastern Europe during 1989 and the recent momentum toward reunification of East and West Germany. V1
TABLE OF CONTENTS PART ONE: CURRENT CHALLENGES INTRODUCTION GLOBAL TRENDS NATIONAL RESPONSES F]JI-URE STRATEGIES PART TWO: HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES UNITED STATES Me American University and Research-Roger L. Geiger Bibliography JAPAN The University, Industry, and Research in Japan-James R Bartholomew Bibliography ......................... SOVIET UNION Research and the Russian Universin,,-Mark B. Adams . Bibliography ............................. GREAT BRITAIN Research and British Universities-Sheldon Rothblatt Bibliography .... FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY 5 9 15 34 .................... 39 48 51 64 69 76 Trends in the Twentieth-Century German Research EnterDrise-Alan D. Beverchen 79 91 Bibliography ............. FRANCE Research, Education, and the Industrial Economy in Modern France-Roben Fox Bibliography APPENDIX SYMPOSIUM AGENDA ..... SYMPOSIUM PANELISTS .... SYMPOSIUM PARTICIPANTS . 95 ................. 107 · e V11 111 112 113
