Materials and Man's Needs Materials Science and Engineering -- Volume IV, Aspects of Materials Technology Abroad (1975) / Chapter Skim
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National Administrative Structures for Research
National Administrative Structures for Research
Pages 34-50
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From page 34... ...
For the most part' other countries appear to have administrative systems which lead to a more clear-cut delineation between organizations responsible for supporting basic research on the one hand and the mission-oriented organizations supporting applied work on the other. In Western Europe, the governments of France, Germany, and the United Kingdom shoulder the main responsibility for formulating and coordinating science policy but none of the three has brought all scientific and technological activities into a single ministry, though the degree of centralization varies in the different countries.
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From page 35... ...
The DTI has as its main objective the assistance of British industry and commerce to improve their economic and technological strength and competitiveness by establishing a general framework of requirements, incentives, and restraints within which firms can operate to their own individual advantage. The DTI, among other things, is responsible for the Atomic Energy Authority, the National Research and Development Corporation, and six industrial research establishments including the National Engineering Laboratory, the National Physical Laboratory, and the Warren Spring Laboratory (primarily chemical engineering)
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From page 36... ...
, with the federal government primarily involved with applied and missionoriented research administered through the "Ministry fur Bildung und Wissenschaft." There is good cooperation between the ministry and other agencies, especially DFG, to bring about contacts and joint efforts between industry and universities. This reflects recognition of the serious communications gap that has persisted between the academic and the industrial establishments in Germany where the tradition of the autocratic, independent, securely tenured, professorships still has a firm hold.
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From page 37... ...
Within a few years, the following became the principal features of science organization in Czechoslovakia: (a) The Academy was responsible to the government for all basic research in the natural sciences, mathematics, social sciences, and humanities, both within its own institutes and the small amount carried on in the universities; (b)
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From page 38... ...
In turn, the Planning Department submits a final report on the fulfillment of the plan to the General Assembly of the Academy which, after discussion, approves it by voting, and transmits it to the Government for the formal final approval. If taken literally, the Central Planning procedures are exceedingly tedious and frustrating and call for commitments of research programs towards well-defined, practical objectives.
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From page 39... ...
Instead, if a physics institute needs the cooperation of chemists, it generally Was to have them on its own staff rather than try to arrange collaboration with a chemistry institute. In the fifties, many scientists in Czechoslovakia were sympathetic to the notion that most research should have a practical pay-off, but the way in which industry was organized and operated tended to frustrate effective cooperation between the Academy scientists and the industrial engineers.
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From page 40... ...
So, in due course, a modus vivendi or co-existence with relatively little interaction developed between the Academy, the research institutes, and industry. Japan Japan uses separate organizations for supporting basic and applied research -- principally the Ministry of Education for the former and the Ministry of International Trade and Industry CMITI)
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From page 41... ...
The program called specifically for increased investment in the manufacture of electronic computers, for the volume production of integrated circuits, for increased production of color TV sets and related parts, and for increased output of electronic desk-top calculators and tape recorders.
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From page 42... ...
Such companies often have research arms attached to each of their operations or product divisions, in addition to a corporate laboratory responsible for long-range research aimed at developing new products and operations, and providing a general technical background for all the firms activities and decisions. To summarize more specifically, experience in various countries indicates that a certain proportion of the total R&D funds should be allocated centrally by a scientific agency concerned mainly with longer-term research, while another part of the R&D funds should be allocated by those responsible for individual sectors.
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From page 43... ...
It is also difficult to assess how far the Soviet Academy influences the activities of Republican Academies and of Higher Educational Establishments. The available evidence reflects a rather complicated process in which attempts at central planning of fundamental research, often somewhat bureaucratic, have been coupled with a situation in which much of the direction of research is determined by individual scientists rather than by
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From page 44... ...
2) Encourages development of overall coherent policy for technical activity that avoids disruption of scientific establishment caused by sudden policy shifts.
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From page 45... ...
. The new Committee received powers to create new scientific establishments, to approve the list of lead institutes, to decide priorities, to discontinue research, and to allocate research projects to particular institutes.
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From page 46... ...
The first, chaired by Lord Rothschild, Head of the Government's Central Policy Review Staff, was concerned with the overall organization and management of government R&D, and mainly applied R&D. The second, undertaken by the Council for Science Policy within the Department for Education and Science, concerns the future of the research council system.
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From page 47... ...
Multi- and interdisciplinary studies grow apace and as a result old boundaries dissolve and the links between seemingly disparate parts grow stronger. This internal cohesion of science is one of its most characteristic features and will surely increase rather than diminish." Rather than categorize science into "pure" and "applied," D finds it useful to identify the following three categories: '3(a)
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From page 48... ...
For example, the Science Research Council (which is the one most relevant for MSE) has major links with: British Broadcasting Corporation Central Electricity Generating Board Department of the Environment Department of Trade and Industry Independent Television Authority Ministry of Aviation Supply Ministry of Defense Post Office United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority, in addition to many links with industrial firms and organizations.
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From page 49... ...
D is clearly struck by the growing interaction and erosion of boundaries between the scientific disciplines, "by the great extent of multi- and interdisciplinary work and by the rapidly increasing tendency for the interactions between the disciplines to grow stronger. The interactions are facilitated by having productive and imaginative scientists in day-to-day contact with colleagues working on related scientific projects with whom they can collaborate directly in new research.
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From page 50... ...
Nevertheless, Brooks is concerned by Rothschild~s "apparent obliviousness to some of the evident weaknesses and dangers of the American system: the instability in funding, the effective lack of concern with the integrity and viability of scientific institutions -- especially the universities -- the wasteful competition for control over glamorous or spectacular technical programs, the confusion of technological virtuosity with scientific achievement, the increasing obsession with narrowly conceived asocial relevance,' sometimes to the detriment of scientific quality, the exacerbation of competitiveness, 'grantsmanship,' and political maneuvering in the scientific community." Much depends on how the customer-contractor principle is applied in practice. It works best when the relationship between client and supplier Is a negotiated one between competent scientists rather than dictated by the client.
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