APPLIED SCIENCE AND INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH 211 



problem, therefore, in the application of science to national 

 industry is presented by the smaller businesses that cannot 

 afford to maintain a really large laboratory. In Great Britain, 

 the solution offered by those responsible is membership in 

 one of the research associations organized under the Depart- 

 ment of Scientific and Industrial Research to serve entire 

 industries. 



A conference on problems of scientific and industrial re- 

 search was held in 1944 at Nuffield College, Oxford, England, 

 and an excellent summary of the discussion was published by 

 the Oxford University Press.* In this report the operations 

 of the research associations are described. The British Re- 

 search Associations ^v ere formed during the first World War 

 when the British government at the end of 1916 announced 

 its intention to allot £1,000,000 for the formation and main- 

 tenance by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Re- 

 search of approved associations for research in co-operation 

 with the industries. The plan was to form associations of 

 which approximately half the cost would be paid by the in- 

 dustries and the remainder by the government, these asso- 

 ciations to carry out systematic research and to apply science 

 to the problems of industry. The scheme was widely ap- 

 proved, and by the end of 1920, thirteen research associations 

 had been formed. The total number to date is just under 

 thirty. 



In the twenty odd years since the first associations were 

 formed, the plan has met with little opposition, yet those 

 men who have been most closely connected ^vith the research 

 associations have, on the whole, been disappointed, a disap- 

 pointment which is commonly attributed to the lack of funds. 

 The sum of £1,000,000 was, of course, utterly inadequate for 

 research relating to the whole of the British industry; yet it 

 w^as found difficult to raise an equal sum from the industries. 

 Undoubtedly, funds could be raised after a research associa- 



* Problems of Scientific and Industrial Research, Oxford University 

 Press, April 1944. 



