Government research for industry: recent British developments

Abstract

From late 1972 the Department of Trade and Industry (and its successor, the Department of Industry) began to operate new machinery for formulating policy towards R & D outside the nuclear and aerospace fields. Under the new machinery, the research establishments of the Department no longer arrive at their programmes through a series of advisory committees, with final endorsement by the Department's Chief Scientist, but rather have requirements placed with them by one or more executive Requirements Boards, comprising industrialists, academics and officials. This paper reviews the developments, beginning in the former Ministry of Technology, which led up to this new machinery, and then examines aspects of its operations from the viewpoints of the Departmental headquarters and of the research establishments involved. Attention is paid to the strategies and composition of the Boards, and to the requirement that the research establishments earn part of their income from industry.