Research and Development in Scotland

Abstract

A MEMORANDUM, "Chemical Research and Development in Scotland", by R. H. S. Robertson issued as Bull No. 3 (March 1944) by the Scottish Reconstruction Committee urges the need for chemical and physical research and development in Scotland, stressing particularly housing research and research in relation to hydro-electricity, the lack of trained personnel in Scotland and the inadequacy of present facilities. The memorandum suggests the formation of a Scottish raw materials department under the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, with a wider field of activities than a development branch of the Geological Survey which would be restricted to the study of minerals, including peat. This department should co-ordinate every stage of development from survey to production and carry out the experimental work which existing organizations are not equipped to do, as well as serve as an institution for giving additional training to the technical men who will develop and eventually run the new industries. Apart from its references to seaweed and peat, the memorandum gives very little indication of what materials call for the creation of a new department to investigate Scottish resources. Neglect of those resources will be readily admitted, but it is n t clear from this memorandum why their investigation and development could not be undertaken as part of the general national research effort—why, for example, separate Scottish research into housing is required.