bonus funds with plan fulfillment are also incorpo- 

 rated formally in plans, although these are derived 

 mainly post facto by application of formulas to 

 match indicators against actual establishment per- 

 formance. Organizational, economic, and managerial 

 mechanisms for plan implementation, like the plan 

 targets themselves, should of course be internally 

 consistent and move the establishment on the track 

 desired by the central leadership. 



In practice, however, the plan and the machinery 

 for its execution frequently break down. The trans- 

 lation of scientific ideas into new products and pro- 

 cesses becomes an obstacle course of endless delays 

 and difficulties. During the 1960s losses due to the 

 slow transfer of R&D results into use ran between six 

 and eight billion rubles a year, or the equivalent of 

 one-fifth of all funds allocated for innovation. For 

 the period of the Seventh Five Year Plan (1959-1965) 

 these losses amounted to about half of the total in- 

 vestment in scientific research and development. It 

 is estimated that an additional five to six billion 

 rubles can be saved annually if the time lag for in- 

 novation is reduced by just one year. Even now not 

 more than 30 to 50 percent of completed R&D finds its 

 way into production. The remainder is either not 

 used at all or assimilated so slowly that it is al- 

 ready obsolete by the time of its introduction. In 

 certain fields as much as 80 percent of finished R&D 

 falls by the wayside without practical utilization. 1 

 Clearly, a major challenge facing Kremlin leaders to- 

 day consists in formulating a science policy to en- 

 courage innovation and the utilization of S&T results 



MANAGING THE RESEARCH-TO-PRODUCTION CYCLE: 



AN OVERVIEW 



Technological innovation in the Soviet Union at 

 present is essentially a bureaucratic function, with 

 situations referred upward through long organization- 

 al lines for resolution. Individual and institution- 

 al performers rarely collaborate directly. Most ex- 



177 



