While characteristics of the "concrete" project 

 may predominate in decision making at the level of 

 the performer organization, with funding a secondary 

 consideration, high-level decision making in prac- 

 tice cannot be made entirely dependent on a careful 

 study and aggregation of the characteristics of spe- 

 cific projects. At the highest level, when estima- 

 ting the total share of national income and determi- 

 ning the total share of the state budget which will 

 be devoted to science, the Council of Ministers must 

 consider not only the potential for scientific ad- 

 vance in necessarily broad categories of research 

 and development but also the impact of expanded tech- 

 nical advances on economic and social developments . ' 

 The growth rate of expenditures on science is gener- 

 ally set somewhat higher than the growth rate for na- 

 tional income and industrial production to insure 

 scientific and technical progress.-'-" Indeed the very 

 rapid and sustained rise in total official Soviet al- 

 locations for science, equal to 2.4 billion rubles in 

 1958 and 17.4 billion rubles in 1975, is indicative 

 of the leadership's awareness of the growing relative 

 importance of technological development as a factor 

 contributing to economic growth. 



The sum allocated to science, as well as its in- 

 tended breakdown by user category and purpose, is 

 specified in a chapter of the annual and five-year 

 State Plans for Development of the National Economy. 

 Here the total volume of outlays for scientific re- 

 search projects and the sources of financing are 

 stipulated, along with the overall wage fund for 

 workers at scientific institutions. J-" These indices, 

 in effect, determine the extent of money, manpower, 

 and materials for conducting R&D. Provisions for 

 capital investments for the construction, expansion, 

 and renovation of scientific facilities are also in- 

 cluded in another chapter of the macroeconomic plans 

 as part of the total volume of capital investments 

 for the development of various sectors of industry 

 and the economy. The science expenditure plans are 

 formulated by the GKNT in collaboration with Gosplan, 

 the Academy of Sciences, and the Ministry of Finance, 

 on the basis of proposals submitted by the USSR min- 



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