Specifically, the Steelman Committee 

 recommended "that heavier emphasis be placed 

 upon basic research and upon medical research 

 in our national research and development 

 budget. Expenditures for basic research should 

 be quadrupled and those for health and medical 

 research tripled in the next decade, while total 

 research and development expenditures should 

 be doubled." In addition, it emphasized that "a 

 National Science Foundation [should] be es- 

 tablished to make grants in support of basic 

 research. . ." Although the committee realized 

 that "in-government research and development 

 programs" contained significant basic research 

 components, it argued that "the bulk of the 

 expansion must come in the universities and 

 colleges and be financed by Federal funds." It 

 contemplated a Federal research budget of 

 $2,240 million by the year 1957, 20 percent of 

 which would be earmarked for basic research, 

 most of which would be carried out through 

 grants and contracts. Actual Federal budget 

 R&D obligations for FY 1957 were $3,932 

 million. Of this total, 6.7 percent was directed to 

 basic research. 



NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION 



The eventual establishment of an independ- 

 ent National Science Foundation in 1950 went 

 far towards answering the call of the Steelman 

 Committee. The several areas of greatest 

 controversy over the years were individually 

 solved in the following manner: 



1. In the eventual legislation, the social 

 sciences were, by implication, eligible for 

 support, although such support was not 

 mandated; 



2. Funds were to be distributed on the basis of 

 scientific merit, but with respect to 

 geographical distribution the Foundation 

 was enjoined "to avoid undue concentra- 

 tion"; 



3. The Foundation director and the members 

 of the governing National Science Board 

 were to be appointed by the President; 



4. Flexible patent policy would allow patents 

 to be retained by those doing the research. 



Despite the new National Science Foun- 

 dation's broad mandate, the actual field within 

 which it could operate was severely limited. 

 The vast fields of medical, nuclear, and defense 

 research were already covered by vigorous 

 programs located in other Federal agencies. In 

 attempting to summarize this diverse Federal 

 activity, the Commission on Organization of the 

 Executive Branch of the Government (the so- 

 called Hoover Commission) noted in 1955 that 

 some 29 different Federal agencies would 

 participate in spending a proposed fiscal 1956 

 research and development budget of $2,400 

 million. 15 



MILITARY SUPPORT OF 

 BASIC RESEARCH 



The support of basic research by the military 

 services was and continued to be a source of 

 diverse problems. In 1948 the Director of the 

 Physical Sciences Division of ONR pointed to 

 the "need for a National Science Foundation" 

 but at the same time insisted that "the ex- 

 periences and operations of ONR do indicate 

 that the National Science Foundation should 

 not be the sole government agency engaged in 

 basic research. The ONR," he added, "has been 

 careful not to become the only naval activity 

 engaged in basic research, because giving 

 authorization to a single group has certain 

 dangers found to be inherent in monop- 

 olies. . . ." 36 This principle was widely ap- 

 proved among those agencies who wanted their 

 own basic research programs, and found 

 support as well on its merits. 



During these same years, for example, the Air 

 Force set up its own basic research agency, the 



'• Research and Development in the Government. A Report 

 I" the Congress by the [Hoover] Commission on Organiza- 

 tion of the Executive Branch of the Government (May, 

 1955], pp. xi, xii, 50. 47. 

 "' Piore, 9. 



RESEARCH IN THE UNITED STATES 13 



