Executive Office of the President 

 National Resources Planning Board 



Washington, D. C, December 1, 1940. 



Mr. Frederic A. Delano, 



Chairman, National Resources Planning Board, 



Washington, D. C. 



Dear Mr. Delano: Wc have the honor to transmit herewith a report on "Indus- 

 trial Research," constituting the second of a series of reports on the research resources 

 of the United States. This report was prepared for the National Resources Planning 

 Board by the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences. The 

 National Research Council assigned the supervision of the preparation of this report 

 to a Committee of 26 outstanding leaders in research. This Committee, known as the 

 Committee of the National Research Council on Survey of Research in Industry, 

 employed a staff of which Raymond Stevens, Vice President of Arthur D. Little, Inc., 

 Cambridge, Mass., was the Director. 



The report calls attention to the fact that the United States has achieved con- 

 spicuous leadership in industrial research. Since the beginning of this century, there 

 has been a rapid development of research of the type with which the report deals. 

 The intimate relations between industrial research and research carried on by the 

 Federal Government and by other agencies, such as universities, is made clear in the 

 report. It is also shown that industrial research has contributed very largely to the 

 improvement of the standards of living. 



The report contains a number of recommendations which the Science Committee 

 commends to the favorable consideration of the National Resources Planning Board. 

 The Science Committee calls special attention to the fact that this report was prepared 

 by one of the councils represented in the membership of the Science Committee. It 

 is the belief of the Science Committee that the Federal Government profits greatly by 

 securing, as it has in this case, the services of a competent nongovernmental association 

 of scholars. 



Respectfully submitted. 



Edwin B. Wilson, 

 Chairman, Science Commiltee. 



Arthur L. Day. Ross G. Harrison. Waldo G. Leland. 



David L. Edsall. Dugald C. Jackson. Charles R. Moret. 



Edward C. Elliott. Charles H. Judd. William F. Ogburn. 



Dexter M. Keezer. 



VII 



