5000 
Total Current 
4500 dollars 
Total constant 
1972 dollars 
4000 
w 
on were 
3500 
3000 Federal current 2° 
dollars 
2500 
Federal constant 
1972 dollars 
2000 
1500 
1960 ‘62 ‘64 66 ‘68 ‘70 72 ‘74 ‘16 
Figure 7-5.—Basic research expenditures 1960-76 (million 
dollars). Source: Science Indicators 1976, National 
Science Board, 1977, p. 211. 
thirds of all basic research funding, has remained 
about the same. 
Industry, like the academic community, has ex- 
pressed concern about the role of the Federal 
Government in R&D. Industry’s concern is that 
Federally sponsored projects may transcend the 
imaginary line that separates nonmarket-oriented 
technological innovation from market-oriented com- 
mercial development. On the other hand, industry is 
also concerned that Federal regulatory actions may 
be based on limited technological expertise. 
As in marine science, which includes both applied 
and basic research, ocean technology includes both 
short-term development for application to immediate 
problems and general purpose engineering and tech- 
nology to lay the basis for long-range development. 
The need for a broad base of ocean technology, not 
directed to specific applications but useful to a wide 
spectrum of ocean development activities, has been 
recognized by a number of Government advisory 
groups representing industrial and academic interests. 
While the fesponses of Government, academe, and 
industry are to some extent self-serving, it is funda- 
mental to the development of consensus on the 
optimal apportionment of resources and responsi- 
bility within the U.S. research establishment. The 
relative roles of each sector in the support and con- 
duct of marine science and technology are not 
mutually exclusive, they tend to overlap throughout 
the R&D process (table 7-1). 
The Stratton Commission cautioned that “it is 
essential that the distinction be clearly made between 
what private industry should do for itself under 
profit motivation and what the Government should 
do to assist.” ° The distinction between governmental 
function and private function is unfortunately not 
that clear. A fuzzy line of demarcation separates 
their respective roles. If the process of innovation is 
short-circuited too soon by terminating Government 
involvement before industry is capable of nurturing 
the innovation, the economic return on the Govern- 
ment’s R&D investment may not be realized. 
There are three instances where the Federal 
Government has extended its role into the techno- 
logical development process beyond the frontier that 
normally divides governmental activities from private 
activities: (1) in the case of disaggregated industries, 
e.g., agriculture, fisheries, and medicine, where the 
structure of the private sector sometimes discourages 
applied R&D because of lack of capital and exper- 
tise, or where industry has no incentive to develop 
new information that would be available equally to 
competitors as well as sponsors of the research; 
(2) where the Government is the consumer of the 
technology, e.g., defense systems, space technology, 
and undersea technology; and (3) in instances where 
support of long-range, high-risk, high-priority tech- 
nology is clearly in the national interest, e.g., nuclear 
technology and ocean thermal energy conversion. 
6 Report of the Commission on Marine Science, Engineering, 
and Resources to the President of the United States and the 
U.S. Congress, by Julius A. Stratton, Chairman. Our Nation and 
the Sea—A Plan for National Action. Washington, D.C., Goy- 
ernment Printing Office, 1969, p. 39. 
Federal Marine Science and Technology Establishment 
Marine science and technology efforts are sup- 
ported by 21 organizations in 6 departments and 5 
independent agencies. The unstated policy of the 
U.S. Government has been to couple specific R&D 
activities to the management and regulatory respon- 
sibilities of individual agencies. This tendency reflects 
the recognition that marine science and technology 
is important in meeting agency operational require- 
ments. 
VII-S 
