ALAN T. WATERMAN 



1956-57, the most recent for which we have complete informa- 

 tion, out of $9 billion total for research and development in 

 the United States, some $670 million, or more than 7 per cent, 

 is going for the support of basic research. It should be borne in 

 mind, moreover, that this amount covers all sorts of costs in- 

 cluding the operation of expensive research "tools" such as 

 nuclear particle accelerators, research rockets, and radiotele- 

 scopes. Of the total, the federal government is the source of 

 $320 million, or 48 per cent; industry $225 million, or 33 per 

 cent; the universities and other nonprofit institutions $125 

 million, or 19 per cent. 



Another index to the relative proportion of effort among 

 the principal sponsors of basic research is the number of sci- 

 entists and engineers engaged in these activities. As is well 

 known, many scientists and engineers combine research and 

 development with other pursuits such as teaching or industrial 

 production. If we simply add up the amount of time given to 

 research and development activities by all our scientists and 

 engineers, we find that this amounts to the equivalent of about 

 300,000 full-time researchers, or about a quarter of the total 

 number of scientists and engineers. Of the 300,000 full-time 

 equivalents in research and development, about 27,000 are in 

 basic research, or about 9 per cent. 



Our estimates indicate, further, that the largest number 

 of basic research scientists, 14,000, or slightly over one-half, 

 are employed in educational and other nonprofit institutions; 

 the second largest number, 9000, or one-third, are working 

 in industry; and the remaining 4000 (15 per cent) in the 

 federal government. 



The University 



The university has for many years been the traditional 

 home of basic research. Ideally, it is here that the so-called 



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