FREEDOM IN THE RESEARCH SYSTEM 



Freedom of inquiry is a value that has 

 traditionally been associated with science. The 

 right of the scientist to choose his own line of 

 research and follow it wherever it may lead is 

 widely defended as being desirable or even 

 necessary for the fruitful development of 

 scientific knowledge. Several of the letter 

 respondents expressed this view. Moreover, it 

 has long been accepted that science should be 

 free of interference from government. These 

 rights were established early in the history of 

 modern science, as the new scientific communi- 

 ty gradually won its struggle for recognition. 



The respondents mentioned a number of ways 

 in which they find that the contemporary 

 situation departs from the ideal of completely 

 free inquiry. For example, in the industry sector 

 there was special concern that inflation, a 

 declining availability of capital, and the need to 

 solve immediate problems are restricting in- 

 dustry's ability to conduct basic research. 



Usually, however, the loss of freedom in 

 doing research was attributed to actions of 

 government. The problem, as it was reported, 

 stems largely from the dependence of the 

 different sectors on government research sup- 

 port. This dependence may not be part of the 

 classical picture of free scientific inquiry, but it 

 is a present reality. Two results of it were 

 widely perceived. First, the fields of research in 

 which support will be provided are limited by 

 public policy and the particular policy of the 

 granting agency. In fact, a great deal of concern 

 was expressed about pressures to do targeted or 

 applied research rather than basic research. 

 Such pressures were reported particularly by 



the Government and university research sec- 

 tors, where the dependence on research support 

 from government is quite strong. 



The other result of depending on government 

 support is what was widely felt to be over- 

 management or overregulation of research by 

 government. Again, this problem was ex- 

 pressed frequently by the Government sector, 

 where there is direct budget control by a Federal 

 agency, and consequently a great deal of direct 

 management. In the universities, wheregovern- 

 ment support takes the form of research grants 

 and contracts, there was concern over the 

 amount of paperwork that is required in 

 connection with such support, and also with 

 regulations governing the actual conduct of 

 research. Although most research in industry is 

 not funded by government, this sector also 

 reported very frequently that government 

 policies and regulations are hindering their 

 basic research effort. 



It will be convenient, therefore, to divide the 

 following discussion of freedom in the research 

 system into two parts. The first will deal with 

 the pressure to do applied rather than basic 

 research, as it was reported by each sector. The 

 second part of this chapter will similarly deal 

 with problems pertaining to overregulation of 

 research by government. 



PRESSURE FOR APPLIED 

 RATHER THAN BASIC RESEARCH 

 University 



Of all the issues that were raised by universi- 

 ty respondents, this is the one that was 



59 



