DAEL WOLFLE 



tive support of university research. A number of the industrial 

 participants spoke of the growing support their companies have 

 been giving to universities. And President Eisenhower empha- 

 sized the importance of industrial support as a means of avoid- 

 ing a dangerously great dependence of universities on federal 

 financing. 



The responsibility of industry to conduct basic research 

 in its own laboratories was also considered. Robert Wilson 

 generalized that the more experience an industry had with re- 

 search, the greater the emphasis it placed on basic research. If 

 this generalization remains true, the future will see increased 

 industrial commitment to basic research. There was a strong 

 feeling, however, that this trend should be accelerated. Exact 

 figures will vary, but no one challenged Robert Oppenheimer's 

 suggestion that, in general, from one sixth to one fifth of the 

 time of the research staff might profitably be devoted to work 

 not directly related to the company's immediate production 

 problems. Among others, Allen Astin contended that an ap- 

 plied-research laboratory will attract and hold higher quality 

 personnel if some such fraction of the time is recognized as 

 appropriately devoted to basic research. 



The Private Foundations 



Recent reports by the National Science Foundation and 

 the President's Science Advisory Committee have suggested 

 that the private foundations have special opportunities for sup- 

 porting pioneering and more imaginative research, since the 

 federal government cannot be as venturesome or imaginative 

 as can the private foundations. Robert Morison examined this 

 position quite explicitly, and replied that some government 

 agencies are so well financed that they are in a better position 

 than the private foundations to take risks on bright new ideas 

 brought in by untried investigators. 



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