Chapter 15. UNIVERSITIES AND BASIC RESEARCH

Vannevar Bush (Science the Endless Frontier, 1945) articulated national science policy after World War II. He described the relationship between basic research and application and how basic research leads to new knowledge. He suggested that basic research is scientific capital, a common fund from which practical applications can be derived and which provides a rationale for public support of basic research. The academic research enterprise has benefited and flourished as a result of public support for Vannevar Bush's basic research policy.

While the basic research enterprise in the United States is composed of governmental, industry, and academic institution research labs, the largest and probably the most creative segment in the United States resides primarily within the academic institutions (National Academy of Engineering, 1993, p. 63). Some of the unique characteristics of the U.S. academic research enterprise relate to free flow of ideas and talent from throughout the world, a long history of public support for this enterprise, the opportunities it provides for the initiative of individual scientists at relatively early stages in their career, and the history of preeminence of the academic institutions in the scientific accomplishments (National Academy of Engineering, 1993).

Much of the research funding at academic institutions comes from governmental and nonprofit organizations. Industry support has been increasing during the last decade, but it still represents less than 10 percent of the total funding. University–industry linkage is important, however, for reasons other than absolute numbers in terms of research funding. To understand the reasons for this and to understand other issues related to the university research enterprise, we discuss the following topics in this chapter:

• Basis for university research activities

• Federal support of university research: an entitlement or a means to achieve national goals?

• Basic research: who needs it?

• University-industry linkage

• Rethinking investment in basic research