ciency — and this must be said again and again — is the 

 most important component of our entire economic strat- 

 egy. In the 1980s accomplishment of this task will 

 become especially urgent. "23 



Under these conditions, problems of choice, prior- 

 ity, and policy have become increasingly important. 

 In turn, they have fed the quest for relevance and 

 the drive to weed out unpromising and unimportant 

 lines of research. That much still remains to be 

 done in this regard, however, is evident from Brezh- 

 nev's remarks to the presidents of the academies of 

 sciences of several socialist states in February 1977, 

 "But why not admit it," he said frankly. "The live and 

 healthy tree of science sometimes has dry and even 

 barren branches. It still happens sometimes that re- 

 search is conducted in completely peripheral or even 

 in simply fruitless directions. "24 



Unfortunately, there are no reliable statistics 

 that show the impact of the government pressure for 

 technology development and delivery on the actual 

 structure of R&D expenditures. It appears, however, 

 that the commitment to fundamental research remains 

 firm and that there has been no significant shift of 

 funds away from basic science. Indeed, the budget of 

 the USSR Academy, the citadel of basic science, has 

 reportedly grown faster in recent years than the na- 

 tional budget for R&D as a whole. 25 



These pressures for economy in R&D and for improv- 

 ing research utilization, in turn, have generated ris- 

 ing interest in cost effectiveness studies. An in- 

 tense search is underway for criteria and ways by 

 which to measure the return on investment in new tech- 

 nology. Opinions differ greatly and obstacles abound, 

 however. A number of specialists caution against ad- 

 hering too stringently to economic cost alone in as- 

 sessing new technology. Some stress the need to take 

 into account "social effectiveness," as expressed in 

 improved social relations or better working conditions, 

 Similarly, a few champion what is sometimes called 

 "ecological" or "wasteless" technology, such as pol- 

 lution control devices. Adopting yet a different 



260 



