BASIC RESEARCH IN THE UNITED STATES 



research is admittedly the close association between graduate 

 faculty and graduate students. How can a specialized research 

 center or facility effectively collaborate with university research 

 and graduate education? If within the university, it tends to 

 monopolize attention; if remote from the university, it suffers 

 from inaccessibility. Although we do not wish to overlook the 

 strength of an organized group for attacking Inroad and complex 

 problems, neither must we neglect to encourage and back indi- 

 viduals and smaller groups who may approach the subject from 

 other disciplines or other points of view. The question seems 

 to me to be an important one of the desirable balance between 

 group and individual effort, certainly in basic research. Above 

 all, we should not try to claim that either alternative has sole 

 merit. 



Independent Research Groups 



We have mentioned the universities, private industry, and 

 the federal government as engaged, in varying degrees, in the 

 conduct of basic research. A further significant category in- 

 cludes the independent, nonprofit laboratories and institutes 

 established or enlarged in recent decades to satisfy a research 

 need not completely served by governmental, industrial, com- 

 mercial, and educational facilities. The independent research 

 laboratories consist generally of those that control their own 

 incomes from endowment funds, and those that derive the 

 bulk of their income from contracts or grants, most commonly 

 from the federal government. 



The independent research institutes and laboratories ac- 

 count for the smallest share of national expenditures for re- 

 search and development but they are making a significant con- 

 tribution to the advancement of knowledge. The report of the 

 President's Science Advisory Committee, issued last December 



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