10 THE FIVE-YEAR OUTLOOK 



the 1970s, such equipment-intensive fields as physics, 

 chemistry, the life sciences, computer science, and engi- 

 neering experienced rapidly escalating costs for maintain- 

 ing existing laboratory facilities and for developing and 

 purchasing the newer, more sophisticated state-of-the-art 

 apparatus needed to conduct research at the cutting edge 

 of those fields. According to one estimate, equipment 

 replacement costs rose at an average rate of 4 percent 

 above inflation during the 1970s. At the same time. 

 Federal funds for research equipment and facilities de- 

 clined sharply during that period, and few universities 

 have been able to provide sufficient assistance for equip- 

 ment purchase or facilities modernization from their gen- 

 eral funds to offset the decline in Federal support. '- 



The equipment obsolescence problem, which has al- 

 ready been cited as one factor contributmg to current 

 shortages of engineering faculty members, is having a 

 direct effect on the quality of university research con- 

 ducted in equipment-intensive fields in both science and 

 engineering. The problem could also have adverse con- 

 sequences for industrial research laboratories that have, in 

 the past, relied heavily on university laboratories for 

 innovative instrumentation concepts. In the words of one 

 observer, the "dynamics of the concurrent advances in 

 scientific instrumentation and industrial technology lie at 

 the heart of the American success story in both areas."" 



There are several conceivable remedies to the instru- 

 mentation problem. They include, in addition to closer 

 university-industry cooperation, special research equip- 

 ment purchase grants, greater flexibility in Federal re- 

 search grant and contract management procedures that 

 would encourage pooling of equipment funds and sharing 

 of apparatus among university departments, expansion of 

 regional instrumentation facilities, and expansion of cen- 

 tralized research facilities for university users at federally 

 supported national laboratories. 



Several scientific disciplines, including oceanography, 

 radio astronomy, and high-energy physics, have long 

 since adapted to using such centralized facilities. The 

 centralized arrangements have enabled substantial re- 

 search progress in those fields, and some observers be- 

 lieve that their extension to other scientific fields is both 

 inevitable and desirable." Considerably greater use is 

 made of centralized research facilities outside the univer- 

 sity system in Western Europe than in the United States. 

 Basic research is conducted both in universities and in 

 associated organizations that are not integral parts of 

 universities both here and in Europe. But, whereas in the 

 United States those associated organizations — the na- 

 tional laboratories — are administered by universities or 

 consortia of universities, in Western Europe — particularly 

 France and Germany — systems of government-supported 

 laboratories exist independently of, and in parallel with, 

 the universities. For that reason, the number of available 

 research positions (and the capacity of those countries to 



conduct research) is less closely tied to student demo- 

 graphics than in the United States (NRC-13). 



Additionally, France, Germany, and the United King- 

 dom all maintain a dual system for supporting research. 

 First, continuing institutional support for conducting re- 

 search is provided to both university and nonuniversity 

 laboratories. Second, grants for special research projects 

 are provided, as in the United States. The three countries 

 also provide support for longer periods of time and for 

 more aggregated research efforts than does the United 

 States. Finally, because of their more limited resources, 

 the Europeans rely more extensively than the United 

 States on cooperative programs at various levels — within 

 individual laboratories, regionally within their own coun- 

 tries, and internationally with one another (NRC-13). 



Given the increasing scale, cost, and complexity of 

 basic research, the European experience, particularly 

 with cooperative research arrangements across the entire 

 range of scientific disciplines, is likely to be of increasing 

 interest in the United States during the next 5 years. 

 However, the probable effects of greater centralization of 

 the U.S. research effort on both the teaching and the 

 research functions of universities have yet to be assessed 

 adequately. 



RESEARCH IN INDUSTRY 



Industry-based scientific research laboratories date from 

 the late 19th century, stimulated in large measure by the 

 success of German industry in coupling scientific results 

 to industrial development, particularly in the synthetic 

 dye industry. Practices in early industrial research labora- 

 tories, which emphasized an interdisciplinary, scientific 

 approach to problem solving, were in many ways counter 

 to the more prevalent model of technology exemplified by 

 Thomas Edison, which emphasized the solution of imme- 

 diate problems by intuition and ingenuity. Those con- 

 trasting styles are still evident in U.S. industrial practice. 

 The amount and character of the research conducted in 

 private corporate laboratories today differ considerably 

 among industries and with the size of firms within particu- 

 lar industries (Figure 5). However, in spite of those dif- 

 ferences, research in industry shares one characteristic 

 that distinguishes it from research conducted in univer- 

 sities and organizations associated with universities: most 

 of it is purposeful; it either aims at the production of a 

 marketable product or aims to respond to Federal regula- 

 tions (NRC-14). That need not imply that all industrial 

 research is focused on specific, identifiable, short-term 

 objectives; indeed, a good deal is devoted to developing 

 the knowledge and tools needed to maintain long-term 

 industrial vitality. Moreover, the length of time that elap- 

 ses between obtaining research results and incorporating 

 them into marketable products may be considerable. 

 Viewed from those perspectives, much of the research 



