Abstract
THE question of incentives for the research worker and manager has rarely received in the past the attention it merits. In this respect, the valuable report on expenditure on research and development which has recently come from the Select Committee on Estimates for the Session 1946–47* is exceptional. This important report reviews the total estimated expenditure for 1947–48 in Government research and development, amounting to more than £69 millions. It does not consider the technical problems involved in the detailed planning and conduct of this work. The Committee is concerned rather to inquire whether in drawing up the programme the Government has provided itself with the best scientific advice available in the country, and has secured that this advice can be brought to bear on the formulation and execution of Government policy; whether the administrative organisation has been so planned as to secure the right relationship between the scientific worker and the executive and to obtain the most fruitful results from the money spent; and, above all, whether the scope and balance of the programme is such as will direct the application of scientific knowledge and effort into those fields where it is most likely to yield returns of permanent value to the nation and in such a way as will make the most efficient use of the limited resources of both money and man-power.
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Government Research and Development in Great Britain. Nature 160, 379–382 (1947). https://doi.org/10.1038/160379a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/160379a0