The Rothschild Experience: Health Science Policy and Society in Britain

Abstract

In November 1971, the British Government published a report, prepared under the supervision of Lord Victor Rothschild, that proposed changes in the way that government-sponsored scientific research should be financed. The so-called Rothschild Report recommended a break from the then prevailing British view that scientific research should be autonomous and free from government intervention. Instead, the Report proposed that some government funds should be transferred from the independent research councils to the government departments, which would then contract the research councils to do work that would more closely meet department needs. Such a system, the Report argued, would make science more accountable and more responsive to the needs of society. The Government implemented, in large part, the proposals of the Rothschild Report, transferring about one-quarter of the funding for the research councils to the appropriate departments. However, in terms of health science research, involving the Medical Research Council (MRC) and the Department of Health and Social Security (DHSS), the Rothschild scheme was not as efficacious as initially envisioned. Even with the transferred funds under the jurisdiction of the DHSS, research goals did not change substantially be-