Abstract
THE periodical reports of the Development Commissioners, in so far as they are concerned with scientific research, possess an especial interest. Historically, the institution of the Development Fund was the first recognition by the State that the best chance of rehabilitating our outworn industries lay in the organised promotion of scientific research. It was fitting that this recognition should first be given to such vital industries as those concerned with the nation's food supply-agriculture and fisheries. It is, perhaps, not sufficiently recognised that the organisation of State aid for industrial research in Great Britain is still in the experimental, or evolutionary, stage. Fundamentally, the Development Commission is a purely advisory body: whereas subsequent authorities, such as the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research and the Medical Research Council, have been endowed with varying degrees of executive powers; and the last-mentioned bodies differ inter se, also, in the degree in which laymen control executive and administrative decisions in relation to matters in which expert scientific knowledge is requisite.
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The Development Commission. Nature 113, 377–378 (1924). https://doi.org/10.1038/113377a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/113377a0