Science Policy Debates Research Articles

Far Beyond the Bounds of Science: The Making of the United Kingdom's First Space Policy

Until recently, serious study of the rationale underlying the space policy announced by the Macmillan government in May 1959, even when attempted, was hampered by the "thirty year rule". Now, knowledge of the arguments deployed by the principal players in this one area of policymaking lay and scientific civil servants, scientific advisers and ministers, academics may be of interest to students of other areas, and of contemporary British history. Although the policy-makers of the late 1950s were alive to the importance of establishing the priority of the new field, to raise this issue did not necessarily imply even the wish, let alone the ability to wield prioritisation effectively as an aid to policy-making. What is clear, however, is that policymakers were unconsciously weighting at least some of the "criteria for scientific choice" identified in the well-known science policy debate of the early 1960s.

John Sutton, 8 July 1919 - 6 September 1992

John Sutton was a geologist who made an important contribution to the understanding of the Precambrian rocks of north-west Scotland, and his methods have been applied by others in many parts of the world. His entire career was spent at Imperial College, where he was associated with the growth of the Geology Department from small beginnings to a world centre, and he took part in many of the science policy debates of the seventies and eighties. He was appointed a Vice-President of the Royal Society in 1975, and in that office he was instrumental in establishing the first contacts between the West and the scientific community in China.

The Role of Federal Laboratories in the Technological Development of Canadian Industry

Canada’s national R&D effort has long been characterized by very strong federal presence and a much weaker performance on the part of industry. This fact has dominated the science policy debates of the last two decades, and has resulted in increasing pressures from federal scientific institutions to help meet the technological needs of Canadian industry. This paper examines the origins of these pressures and reviews some of the policy initiatives that have resulted. The paper further argues that the individual contributions which federal R&D programs can make are more limited than is generally believed, and that greater sensitivity to the various roles which are played by government laboratories will have to be reflected in science policy choices for the 1980s.