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PREFACE 



Dr. Isaiah Bowman was named by Dr. Vannevar Bush, Director of the 

 Office of Scientific Research and Development, as chairman of a committee 

 to consider this question raised by President Roosevelt in his letter of Novem- 

 ber 17, 1944, to Dr. Bush: "What can the Government do now and in the 

 future to aid research activities by public and private organizations? The 

 proper roles of public and of private research and their interrelationship should 

 be carefully considered." 



The Bowman Committee has confined its attention to research activities 

 in the natural sciences, engineering, and agriculture. Clinical medicine has 

 been considered bv another committee. The support of the social sciences, 

 it is believed, represents an important problem in itself which should be 

 handled as a separate issue. 



In analvzing the task assigned to the Bowman Committee, the project was 

 divided into the following major questions: 



1. What should the Government do to assist research in universities 

 and nonprofit research institutes? 



2. What should the Government do to assist scientific research con- 

 ducted by the Government itself? 



3. What should the Government do to assist research in industrv? 



4. What changes, if any, should be made in our present tax structure 

 to stimulate industrial research? 



5. What policv should the Government follow to encourage greater 

 international interchange of scientific knowledge and engineering art 

 after the war? 



6. What are the proper roles of public and private research? 



The Committee was divided into working groups to consider each of these 

 questions except the last. The whole report is concerned with the basic 

 problem of the proper roles of public and private agencies in scientific re- 

 search. The analyses undertaken by the working groups have been combined 

 into a final report which is submitted herewith. 



In addition to numerous meetings of the subcommittees the main Com- 

 mittee has held three full meetinos, the first of which was devoted to 

 resolving the problem into its major parts, the second to discussing the 

 concept of the Federal Go\'ernment in relation to research, and the last to 

 considering the recommendations of the subcommittees. 



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