ness of programs. Responsibility for a particular 

 basic problem is assigned by the GKNT to the most ap- 

 priate ministry or department, designated the "head 

 ministry" or lead agency. As a rule, the latter is 

 the main consumer of the results of the solution to 

 the problem. 



By their nature, basic S&T problems are large- 

 scale, complex science policy efforts. The 246 prob- 

 lems in the Eighth Plan, for example, were broken 

 down by the lead agencies into over 3000 assignments 

 and projects and distributed to appropriate perform- 

 ers. The USSR Ministry of the Chemical Industry, for 

 example, acted as the head ministry for 14 basic prob- 

 lems. R&D organizations and production units from 

 more than 20 different ministries and departments were 

 enlisted to work on them. At the same time, R&D fa- 

 cilities of the Ministry of the Chemical Industry 

 participated as coperformers in nearly 150 projects 

 for 51 problems under the auspices of 27 ministries 

 and departments. Similarly, the USSR Ministry of 

 Heavy, Power, and Transport Machine Building was re- 

 sponsible for solving 10 basic problems in which 23 

 other ministries took part. This ministry, in turn, 

 worked on more than 240 projects dealing with differ- 

 ent priority problems for which other ministries were 

 in charge. In total, more than 65 all-union and 

 union-republic ministries and agencies as well as 

 over 350 performing organizations were involved in 

 the activity related to this select list of problems. 

 Some problems alone had as many as 50 or more insti- 

 tutional participants.-^' 



The overall magnitude of effort remains about the 

 same for the current 200 basic S&T problems. The to- 

 tal number of ministries and departments has climbed 

 to over 70 while the number of performing establish- 

 ments exceeds 400. With the transfer to more compre- 

 hensive work programs that extend through the innova- 

 tion stage, the average number of organizational ac- 

 tors engaged on a given problem has grown. In addi- 

 tion, the USSR Academy of Sciences is involved on 

 more than half of the 200 programs. About one-third 

 of the basic problems also entail the participation 



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