Abstract
SIR EDWABD APPLETON, secretary of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, in opening the new physico-chemical laboratories of the British Coal Utilization Research Association at Coombe Springs on June 23, congratulated the Association both on its new facilities in laboratory space and on the financial provision now available for large-scale work. The steps the Association has taken are among the first notable signs of a great forward movement in industrial research in Great Britain, Sir Edward said, which he confidently expects will be one of the features of post-war Britain. The Coal Utilization Research Association is serving the coal industry as a whole, and he particularly welcomed the expression of the interest of the miners themselves shown in the recent appointment of two members of the Mine-workers' Federation to the council of the Association. It is, he said, fashionable nowadays to decry British industrial research effort, because it is claimed that the amount of money spent on research per head of population is less than that in certain other countries. Much depends, of course, on what basis such a calculation is founded ; whether or not, for example, development costs are included under the heading of research. Moreover, there can be unwise expenditure, as well as wise expenditure, even on research. But it can certainly be stated that British effort on research is not commensurate with our industrial needs. To talk merely of spending more money, however, was not enough. It was necessary to plan our attack on both new and old problems and, most important of all, to attract some of our best scientific brains in the country to solve them.
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Industrial Research in Great Britain. Nature 152, 16 (1943). https://doi.org/10.1038/152016b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/152016b0