Industry 



The respondents from industry were also 

 concerned about an increased emphasis on 

 applied research. In fact, this was a major 

 concern of theirs. As Table E-2 in the Appendix 

 shows, the third most prevalent issue men- 

 tioned in the industry sector is the perception 

 that short-term relevance is becoming the only 

 objective of research. In addition, the table 

 shows that there are other issues from this 

 sector that have to do with an alleged shift away 

 from fundamental research. 



The problem of short-term relevance was 

 mentioned particularly often by vice-presidents 

 or directors of research. For example, C. J. 

 Meechan, Vice President for Research and 

 Engineering at Rockwell International, said 

 that: 



The formidable challenges which the nation faces 

 (in areas of energy, resources, environment, 

 food), in conjunction with limitations on financial 

 resources have forced many basic research 

 workers into activities aimed at short-term 

 solutions to these problems. The lower priority 

 given to fundamental research restricts and 

 inhibits the scientific freedom necessary to 

 attract highly motivated, skilled researchers into 

 promising areas. In addition, it promotes a lack of 

 funding continuity, which makes it difficult to 

 establish and retain the necessary sophisticated 

 teams required to efficiently carry out substantial 

 projects. The subsequent instability and disrup- 

 tion creates longer term problems in attracting 

 and motivating top quality scientific talent and 

 skilled research managers. 



This response from industry sounds very 

 much like the university letters previously 

 quoted, where the pressures on individual 

 researchers are emphasized and the connection 

 between loss of freedom and instability of 

 funding is brought out. 



In the above quotation, two reasons are given 

 for the shift to applied research. One is the new 

 and formidable problems that the Nation faces. 

 The other is limited financial resources. Other 

 respondents elaborated on this latter point by 



indicating that businessmen can no longer 

 count on capital being easily available on a 

 long-term basis. Hence there are more short- 

 term applied projects, as opposed to long-term 

 basic and exploratory projects. An example of 

 this view is the statement of James Hillier, 

 Executive Vice President, Research and 

 Engineering, at RCA Corporation, which was 

 quoted in Chapter 3. For him, there is a close 

 connection between the issue of declining 

 availability of long-term investment capital and 

 the present issue, declining freedom to do long- 

 term, basic research. 



Some respondents traced the pressure for 

 applied research to policies of the Federal 

 Government. An example is the statement by D. 

 J. Blickwede, Vice President and Director of 

 Research for Bethlehem Steel Corporation: 



At the national level, our goals for science and 

 technology have become mission oriented. That 

 is, the objective of much of the research being 

 funded by the Government through NSF, etc., is 

 aimed at solving specific National problems. In 

 this regard, emphasis has been placed on socio- 

 economic programs at the expense of basic 

 research in the pure sciences. 



The result of this trend. . .is to markedly reduce 

 the Nation's basic research effort in the short 

 range, and in the long range to seriously 

 jeopardize our position of world leadership in 

 science and technology. 



As a solution to this problem, I believe that we 

 should de-emphasize mission oriented research 

 and return to funding programs aimed at the 

 advancement of knowledge, particularly in 

 science and technology. It is knowledge of this 

 type that ultimately is utilized by American 

 industry and which has been responsible for our 

 position of world leadership 



This also is similar to the many letters from 

 universities and Government laboratories thai 

 see the problem as one caused by a policy of 

 government. In fact, there were industry 

 respondents who took the same point of view as 

 those university respondents who deplored 

 pressures that government places on univer- 



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FREEDOM IN THE RESEARCH SYSTEM 



