10 



National Resources Corrmuttee 



(he ciAJl side of research, State scientific workers are in close 

 touch with private industry, and il is only to be expected that 

 officers who have done fundamental pioneer work under the 

 aegis of the .State will sooner or later be attracted, both on 

 intellectual and on financial grounds, to outside posts respon- 

 sible for its development for industrial purposes. Indeed, even 

 though such transfers may appeal' to be mainly out of, rather 

 than into, State establishments, we can, from a broad point of 

 view, see advantage in them to the community as a whole. 



Sulyect, however, to what has just been said, it is clear 

 that the keen competition for the services of men who show 

 an aptitude for scientific research must be an important factor 

 in the staffing of the State scientific establishments. The num- 

 ber of such men leaving the universities in any year is limited. 

 The growing combined needs of the State, of the universities, 

 and of the research organizations of private industry will no 

 doubt ill time influence the supply ; but it is open to question 

 whether the State services are at present attracting a fair 

 proportion of the best recruits. In any case, we think that 

 the present supply is neither so large nor so good as it might be 

 if the conditions of employment were made more attractive. 



At an early stage in our discussions we made enquiries to 

 ascertain how far any relative inadequacy of salaries was re- 

 sponsible for such a position. We do not think it could be 

 said that the existing salaries of the State scientific staffs 

 compare unfavourably with those of similar staffs in university 

 institutions, although it must be recognized that the conditions 

 of service under the State are in some respects less favourable 

 than in the universities. Competition is keenest, however, with 

 private industry ; and here it would appear that while the 

 higher posts in industrial laboratories are paid better, the lower 

 posts are often paid worse than similar posts in Government 

 employment. Moreover, conditions of service in private in- 

 dustry are generally more onerous and tenure less secure, al- 

 though the latter fact will deter the brilliant man less than 

 the average man. Owing to the much larger size of its estab- 

 lishments, and to the general conditions of Government em- 

 ployment, the State cannot follow private industry either in 

 the amount of the higher salaries the latter pays or in the 

 practice of paying personal salaries according not only to the 

 individual merits of research workers but also to their potential 

 commercial or industrial value. Nevertheless, the fact re- 

 mains that the State has to compete with private industry as 

 well as with the universities for the services of research 

 workers, and we are clear that some steps must be taken to 

 make that competition more effective. In achieving this end 

 the ultimate financial prospects offered will be more important 

 than the salaries paid immediately on recruitment ; and with 

 that consideration in view we have come to the conclusion 

 that the present schemes of grading and salary scales in the 

 establishments under review are generally inadequate. 



While thus admitting that some improvement is necessary in 

 the careers offered to scientific workers in the Government serv- 

 ice, we have regarded it as of primary importance to examine 

 carefully whether the State needs, for all the work at present 

 performed by the scientific staffs, the services of those whom 

 the present salaries are said to be inadequate to attract and 

 retain — that is, men of high academic qualifications and of 

 special aptitude for research. It is vital in our view that before 

 any important changes are made in the present organization 

 and pay of the staffs of the scientific departments the staff needs 

 of each department should be carefully reviewed in the light 

 of the character as well as the volume of the work to be 

 performed. 



In the first place it would appear that in most departments 

 some of the scientific staff are engaged on work which is quite 



definitely of an ancillary character. Those of us who have 

 experience of the direction of scientific work in the Government 

 service are of opinion that much of this ancillary work could 

 be, and should be, transferred to technical assistants and staff 

 of similar grades, whose main equipment will generally be not 

 academic knowledge but experimental, constructional, and ob- 

 servational ability. 



By making the fullest use of technical assistants it should 

 be possible to ensure that men of the scientific officer class are 

 always employed either on investigations which definitely re- 

 quire originality of outlook and execution, or on work which, 

 though not demanding exceptional originality, does require wide 

 knowledge and special experience, and cannot be adequately per- 

 formed by technical assistants. Even in the research depart- 

 ments there will be work which, although of a responsible nature 

 and best undertaken by officers recruited after graduation at 

 a university, requires scientific experience rather than special 

 aptitude for research. In departments whose functions include 

 a large proportion of work which cannot be classed either 

 wholly or mainly as individual or directive research work, the 

 proportion of officers of the research type will be considerably 

 less. Thus, in the technical departments a proportion of the 

 officers will be employed on individual and experimental work 

 leading to development, but a large number will also be required 

 for work requiring technical experience rather than initiative. 

 Similarly, in the other established departments, the number of 

 research officers required below the supervisory and directing 

 grades will be relatively few in proportion to the number of 

 scientific officers required for administrative work of a routine 

 character. 



Within each of the above classes there will, of course, be 

 room for a measure of grading varying with the standard of 

 individual work or with the volume and quality of blocks of 

 work requiring supervision.' 



The Recruitment of Personnel 



In general, there is little participation by the Gov- 

 ernment in the initial training of research workers. 

 Such workers are prepared in the educational institu- 

 tions of the country and are brought into governmen- 

 tal service through the examinations conducted by the 

 Civil Service Commission. A sharp contrast is to be 

 drawn between the methods of securing persomiel for 

 goverimiental service, especially pei-sonnel for research, 

 and the methods adopted by the Goverimient in re- 

 cruiting leaders and other personnel in the Army and 

 the Navy. The Federal Government assimies full re- 

 sponsibility for preparing its military personnel. The 

 Army conducts some 50 schools of various types, in- 

 cluding the Military Academy ; the Navy conducts some 

 100 schools, including the Naval Academy. Nowhere 

 else does the Government go as far in providing educa- 

 tion for recruits as it does in the Army and the Navy. 

 There are educational activities in other branches of 

 the Government through which individuals are 

 brought into governmental service, but in general the 

 recruits thus prepared for service are of the subprofes- 

 sional or technical classes. The Forest Service, for e.T- 



> His Majesty's Treasury: Report of the Committee on the Staffa of 

 Government Scientific Establishments, published by His Majesty's 

 Stationery Office, 1937, pp. 17-20. 



