PAUL E. KLOPSTEG 



i. Any government administrator with experience in his 

 field of science and broad acquaintance among those engaged in 

 basic research can carry on his duties without having to depend 

 on a formal definition. 



2. Although our topic is government support, i.e., funding 

 of external research, the basic research done by government 

 agencies in their own laboratories is also, and obviously, govern- 

 ment supported. The fraction of departmental funds devoted to 

 internal basic research is relatively small. 



3. Very few industrial corporations engaged in research, 

 development, and engineering conduct basic research, and 

 among those that do, the work is related to the interests of the 

 company, and constitutes a relatively small fraction of the total 

 activity. Government support is seldom, if ever, involved. 



4. So-called research foundations with laboratories and 

 technical staff do little basic research. Their purpose is pri- 

 marily to make technical studies and developments for clients. 

 They perform an important function, and some of them do 

 excellent work for the government under contract. More govern- 

 ment contract work might well be done by nonprofit foundations 

 and corporations, and correspondingly less by universities. 



5. The pattern of government support for basic research 

 which requires large facilities and equipment and research 

 teams beyond the most imaginative predictions of two decades 

 ago has been firmly established. Such work, usually conducted 

 in government-owned laboratories, has become a highly signifi- 

 cant and indispensable part of our national effort in basic re- 

 search. Its scope and scale are sure to increase. More such labora- 

 tories and institutes, operated by a university or an association 

 of universities, will be established. Under construction, for ex- 

 ample, are the National Radio Astronomy Observatory at Green 

 Bank, and the stellar and solar optical observatories at Kitt Peak. 

 Plans for a National Institute for Atmospheric Research are 



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