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Recommendations We set forth our recommendations in two sections: National Policies for R&D (I-IV) and The Implementation of National Policies (V-VIII). Recommendations Concerning National Policies for R&D To the extent possible, federal research and development programs should be organized in ways that are consistent with national objectives with respect to regional economic development. Because objectives of specific programs change and are stated in different ways from time to time, the policy recom- mendations which follow are cast within a general framework. The general objectives relating to regional economic development may be stated as: The broadening of human-development opportunities in all regions of the country with the over-all objective of reducing major imbalances in the avail- ability of social and economic opportunities. Assuring for each region the opportunities to develop competence for dealing with social and economic problems susceptible of solution by science and technology. Providing mechanisms by which a region may develop the initiative to utilize its resources, enhance its environment, and develop its production 89
90 and service activities within the framework of national growth and develop- ment. The Committee also recognized that there are two distinct sets of national objectives for R&D, in the context of which recommendations should be made: Central National Goals for R&Dâsuch as leadership in the important fields of science, nuclear power, space exploration, and national defenseâin which the program is national in focus, sponsorship, and over-all direction. Distributed National Goals for R&Dâsuch as the development of human re- sources, the rebuilding of our cities, water resources, and regional environment for livingâin which the programs are characterized by local determinants in the nature of the problems, in the approach to solutions, and in the antici- pated consequences. I. Federal policies for the support and conduct of R&D should include as major objectives the fostering of regional development, of the rapid diffusion of technology, and of innovation in the public and private sectors. Since a rapid rate of technological innovation and technology diffusion is a key ingredient of economic development, federal agencies engaged in R&D activities should attempt to shape their policies with due attention to their possible economic implications, particularly including the transfer of technol- ogy from the immediate purposes of the agencies to other purposes and to the civilian economy. Federal investment in R&D should take cognizance of the distinctions between what we have called distributed national goals in R&D and central national goals in R&D. Policies should be developed in such a way as to achieve the maximum possible beneficial contribution to each of these categories of na- tional goals. In order to foster the transfer of technology, large broad-activity federal re- search institutions should regard it as part of their function to encourage other federal agencies and missions and institutions in the private sector to use the technologies that they have developed. Wherever feasible, the government should seek to stimulate technological innovation by means of generating commercial demand (for newly developed
91 instruments, computers, technical services, etc.) rather than by direct support of R&D or the purchase of specifically defined R&D results. The federal government should seek to stimulate innovation both by creating new industries in the private sector and by new approaches to problems in the public sector. Three types of innovators are needed: technological entrepre- neurs, financial entrepreneurs, and civic entrepreneurs. II. The federal government should delineate distributed national goals in R&D that will aid all regions of the nation to meet their needs in such areas as education, transportation, delivery of public health services, law enforcement and the administration of justice, clean water and air, and housing and urban development. The federal government should foster the establish- ment of programs for the implementation of these goals involving participation of both the public and the private sector and R&D institutions in all the per- forming categories. Government at all levels (federal, regional, state, and local), as well as private industry and non-profit organizations, should be involved in the decision- making process and in providing funds in support of R&D aimed at the solu- tion of these problems. In many areas, R&D is well supported, while in others, support is minimal. Greatly enlarged R&D programs will be called for in the course of the next decade. Institutions providing such widely needed services as education, health, or law enforcement need increasing support and innovative approaches. These programs should be approached in pluralistic, decentralized ways, both geo- graphically and institutionally, rather than through highly centralized direction and management. Private enterprise should be stimulated in such areas as housing, natural re- source development and exploitation, and transportation. Private corporations should be encouraged to re-examine and enlarge their R&D activities and services in the public interest. Public policies, such as in the area of taxation and regulation, may have to be reconsidered in order to promote greater par- ticipation of the private sector. III. In the attainment of central national goals in R&D, it is essential to the national interest that the prime criteria for the granting of government funding be based on merit. While the agencies of the federal government
92 should continue to select the most qualified and competent R&D performers, the federal policies for R&D investment should take cognizance of regional or distributed national goals. In R&D activities relating to central national goals, particularly in the develop- ment of needed operational systems, the R&D programs should seek to achieve the maximum possible technological transfer and innovation consistent with the more immediate agency objectives. 1. Government R&D policy should avoid encouraging the development of completely self-contained capabilities within government-supported mission- oriented research institutions. These laboratories should be encouraged to develop and utilize independent suppliers who market their technical services and products to other users both within the government and elsewhere. Such a policy would assist in the diffusion of technology and thus contribute to regional development as well as to strengthening the private enterprise system. 2. Our nation should either lead or be at the forefront of research in most of the important fields of science. In the pursuit of this central national goal, the federal support of science should take account of other national goals, e.g., the education of future scientists, maintaining the over-all strength of the universities, and training engineers and other specialists needed in pri- vate industry. 3. Although prime contractors for critically needed products or ma- terials should be selected without specific criteria as to the location of physical plant, the selection of alternative sources for such products or materials may appropriately take into account questions of regional distribution. Policy for the location of newly established government laboratories or feder- ally sponsored not-for-profit institutions should be coordinated with policies for regional economic development. That is, in the location of such government- sponsored facilities in a given region, sites should be selected where the cul- tural, environmental, and institutional attributes will enable the area to capi- talize upon the new facilities in fostering further development. However, such site selection should not be made at the cost of significant degradation in the potential performance of the facility. The location of an R&D facility or the support of R&D activities in the in- terests of the economy of a given region may sometimes entail an incremental cost over that for an installation at a more advantageous site. Whatever cost disadvantage is allowable should be recognized as a federal contribution to regional development. To the extent possible, the amount should be explicitly estimated and charged as a transfer from the economic development budget to the R&D funding organization.
93 IV. To provide for the maximum development of human capabilities, access to quality institutions of education should be available to citizens in all regions of the country. Since graduate research helps to provide superior edu- cational opportunities at the university level as well as innovation at all levels of education, there should be a national commitment to the development and further improvement of centers of scientific and academic excellence in all major regions, particularly in those now deficient in such facilities. In view of projected increases in national need and demand for graduate educa- tion, some new universities may be anticipated and a number of those which do not have traditions of research will be attempting to develop graduate-research capabilities. Both national and regional planning are needed to provide a ra- tional basis for encouragement and support of those capabilities. The federal government should support a distributed national program of re- search and development aimed at the improvement and the broadening of educational opportunities at all levels, including continuing adult education. A national goal for R&D in education should include as one objective the development and introduction of new technology into the teaching process and into studies of the learning process. There should be an expansion of research programs in the social and behavioral sciences aimed at a broadened understanding of learning processes, including research on the social and cultural factors underlying the ability to learn and to achieve. Recommendations Regarding the Implementation of National Policies for R&D V. R&D programs aimed at distributed national goals should be carried out in two categories of R&D institutionsâone oriented toward problems that many regions share in common, the other directed to the problems of given regions. To encourage the technological and economic development of a given region, there is a need for competent R&D institutions that are com- mitted, as a principal institutional mission, to the development of the region. A system of such institutions, here referred to as Exploratory Centers for Regional Development, should be seriously considered as a long-term objec- tive; a small number should be set up on a pilot basis. Some R&D institutions and programs should address regional problems for the nation as a whole, in areas like transportation, air pollution, and law enforce-
94 ment, in which solutions are widely applicable to many regions. Coordination and joint sponsorship of programs at the national level should be carried out at the department or national agency level, e.g., Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, Commerce. New programs aimed at distributed national goals should be initiated to in- crease the responsiveness of new and existing R&D institutions to the social needs and problems of the regions in which they are located. 1. The programs should foster an entrepreneurial spirit toward inven- tions leading to valid solutions of regional problems. They should recognize the social and economic problems associated with technological change and the constraints imposed on regional development by these factors. 2. University R&D addressed to regional development should be re- lated to a national distributed goal for education. As pilot experiments in the development of a national system of Exploratory Centers for Regional Development, a small number of such institutions should be established in regions in which needs for regionally oriented R&D exist and which are reasonably delineated in terms of geographic and political compat- ibility. 1. We believe that it is preferable that the initiative for establishing such an organization come from the specific region in which it is to be located. This is most likely where a major client-sponsor in the form of a regional com- mission or compact may already exist. In some regions in which regional orga- nizations do not exist, Exploratory Centers should be set up on a pilot basis to work on problems of the region and to identify, or encourage the organization of, regional client-sponsors. 2. A number of alternative organizational structures should be considered for the initial Exploratory Centers. While one or two Centers might be newly established in regions for which existing R&D institutions may not be available or suitable, the first few Centers might also include (or be attached to) re- oriented centers such as one of the National Laboratories of the Atomic Energy Commission, a free-standing not-for-profit corporation, a major university, or a private corporation. 3. The Regional Exploratory Centers should be broad-based institutions equipped to deal with complex systems problems and to carry out entrepre- neurial functions; they should be of sufficient scientific and engineering status to perform and relate effectively at the forefront of national science and tech- nology.
95 4. The functions of Exploratory Centers for Regional Development should include (1) continuing survey and exploration of regional problems and resources; (2) social and technological inventionâthe matching of potential solutions to regional problems, and the evaluation of alternative solutions including costs, values, and the time and resources required; (3) innovationâthe implementation and transfer of new ideas, new organizational structures, and new or existing technologies into widespread use in the region. One of the major activities of an Exploratory Center would be a brokerage function: the identification of valid client-sponsors to implement a variety of new plans or ideas. Such client-sponsors, from both the private and the public sector, would in turn pose problems for research and development. In general, R&D institutions committed to regional objectives would share functions with comparable institutions in the same regions and elsewhere. 5. The financial support of the Regional Exploratory Centers should be shared by the federal government, and by public and private organizations in the regions. VI. New programs aimed at the attainment of distributed national goals in R&D should be oriented to support and to benefit from the buildup of regional centers of research excellence in higher education. To provide orderly support for the development of an enlarged system of major institutions, a system of institutional grants from the federal government, which should be based in part on the number of students served, will be needed to supplement the existing systems of external support. In addition, there is a need for block or program grants for the development of selected fields or to solve special problems. These should be carefully administered to assure selectivity in fund- ing to those programs which, in the course of their development, demonstrate greatest potential for superior performance in graduate research. Research funding for new and developing educational institutions should be provided in large measure by national programs aimed at distributed national goals in R&D. These programs should also support R&D activities concerned with regional policy and problems carried out in established universities. A system of block or program grants, especially needed for new and develop- ing educational institutions, is also uniquely suited to the support of applied
96 research programs concerned with regional problems. As demonstrated by the early development of the agricultural experiment stations, the block grant supervised by a qualified research administration is more likely to build co- operative efforts and to retain continuity of purpose than individual grants to each of the research participants. However, the continuation of regionally oriented block grants beyond an initial several-year period of buildup should be based in large measure on past performance and the provision of local contributions. Although they should emphasize research efforts aimed at distributed goals in R&D, developing institutions should not be excluded from participation in R&D programs directed at central national goals. Such a restriction would be likely to work seriously against the development of high-quality graduate research in such institutions. However, the award of research grants directed at central goals would be made in competition with other institutions in the nation at large. Because the large costs and the decades required make it completely imprac- ticable for every existing college or university to develop into a major center of research and graduate education, each state or group of states should engage in planning activities to determine which local institutions should be supported to permit their development into graduate universities. Current developments in the technologies of communications, information retrieval and transfer, and computer hardware and software should be en- couraged and plans made to incorporate them into widespread use. Access to modern computers and to libraries should be made available to all students, regardless of where they live and what schools they attend. A basic class of such service should be financed through a federal program of institu- tional grants, based on enrollment, to colleges and universities in all regions of the nation. VII. The federal government should enlarge and improve its program of financial incentives to encourage regional planning activities, especially to incorporate R&D in the design of programs aimed at the solution of regional problems. Essential to these activities is the identification or estab- lishment of knowledgeable and able client-sponsors. The delineation of regional problems can be greatly aided by comprehensive surveys and systematic analyses carried out by capable and independent R&D
97 organizations; however, the political, economic, and social conditions can not be adequately set forth in the absence of client-sponsors charged with imple- menting proposed solutions. The federal government should strengthen existing programs and seek to pro- vide new mechanisms to encourage joint planning efforts involving participating private agencies, state or local government units, or governing boards and should provide advice and know-how based on experience gained elsewhere. The initiative for proposing regional plans or the solution to regional prob- lems should be sought in any appropriate sector of the public or private enter- prise. Private corporations or businessmen, universities or university professors, and government agencies or their representatives should be encouraged by a system of matching grants to propose new approaches to the solution of regional problems. VIII. In view of the continuing need to address regional problems that exceed the boundaries or jurisdiction of individual states, the federal govern- ment should re-examine and revise the delineation of congressionally desig- nated underdeveloped regions and, recognizing that regional problems have different geographic structures, recommend mechanisms for organization of compacts or commissions to design and to sponsor regional programs. The delineation of a geographic region should not be characterized solely by a common economic problem. The organization of regions and of regional programs should be based on viable economic and political relationships among states, metropolitan areas, smaller urban centers, and rural areas. Regional client-sponsors for planning and for the management of proposed development programs can be established by compacts among various governmental bodies. Mechanisms should be provided within the federal government and at the regional level to assure that grant-in-aid programs from various agencies are mutually supportive and consistent with over-all objectives for regional develop- ment. The Federal-State Regional Commissions, made possible under the Public Works and Economic Development Act and the Appalachian Regional Development Act, can provide a basic framework in the designated underdeveloped regions for more effective utilization of scientific and technical competence. Such Federal-State Commissions might be appropriate in other sections of the country for intergovernmental planning and coordination of joint programs,
98 and not solely to promote economic development. The establishment of new regional commissions should take account of the experience of the earlier efforts, and need not necessarily be patterned exactly after these initial attempts.
