787 



in specific cost terms, but also with regard to the delays, uncertainties and 

 bureaucratic constraints imposed on industry by what is seen as a burgeoning 

 regulatory environment. 



The incoming Administration has indicated its intention to address this 

 issue directly. Hopefully, sound data and analysis will underlie any actions 

 taken. 



b. Cooperation: 



Scientific and technological cooperation among Western technologically- 

 advanced countries is not rare, especially in fundamental scientific 

 research. However, as compared to the scale of investments in RAD and the 

 common goals of Western countries, the number of genuinely cooperative 

 projects is actually quite small, especially at the technological development 

 end of the spectrum. The explanations are easy to find: the difficulties 

 encountered in organizing cooperation, the concern over losing a competitive 

 position, and, most important, the basically domestic orientation of most 

 governments. That makes the meshing of programs, objectives, budgets, and 

 people much more complex than when carried out within one country. 



The economic needs and the constraints may now be sufficiently changed as 

 to put the possibilities for cooperation, especially technological 

 cooperation, much higher on the agenda in the coming period. Industrial 

 countries are all in need of technological progress to meet their social, 

 political and economic requirements, at the very time when the economic 

 situation that created these requirements also serves to place severe 

 budgetary constraints on national R4D expenditures. 



