Abstract
IT has been common knowledge, amongst those conversant with such matters, that a certain amount of overlapping has existed in connexion with the grants made by Government to various bodies who utilise the money for assisting research and other work hi the British Empire. The system underlying these grants has developed by instalments and does not, therefore, represent a carefully thought-out scheme. For this reason the first report of the Estimates Committee, of which Sir Vivian Henderson is chairman, recently presented to the House of Commons, will be welcomed. It is understood that the Committee has examined the estimates of the following funds: Empire Marketing Board, Colonial Development Fund, Development Fund, Ministry of Agriculture, Colonial and Middle Eastern Services, and University Grants Committee. The Estimates Committee's object was to ascertain to what extent in recent years Parliament has been asked for funds to assist the same object or body through different channels, since the Parliamentary estimates do not themselves indicate clearly the sources of the demand. The Committee has noted, for example, that grants are being allotted to the Empire Marketing Board for many purposes which are also assisted by the Development Fund, the Forestry Commission, the Ministry of Agriculture, or the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. Again, in the case of the Colonies, grants are being made from the Colonial Development Fund for the ordinary purposes of Government, whilst at the same time, the Colony concerned may be receiving a grant from the Colonial Office. It is not suggested that the departments or bodies receiving such grants are in ignorance of what is being done by others working on the same lines, but the fact remains, as the Committee remarks, that many institutions in Great Britain are receiving assistance from the State through. two or three, or even as many as four or five, or more, channels. This position of itself justifies the appointment of the Estimates Committee, the work of which should also prove of service to Government at the Ottawa Conference.
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Overlapping of Government Research Funds. Nature 129, 572 (1932). https://doi.org/10.1038/129572b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/129572b0