ABSTRACT
With the outbreak of hostilities in September 1939 arrangements for the use of the universities and their personnel in war industry were devised to avoid the chaotic waste. A flow of young trained scientists and technologists through the universities was maintained and this was to be vital for war-time science and industry. The two most striking areas of advance due to university and industry co-operation leading to war-time developments of considerable future industrial significance were radar and atomic energy. Watson Watt had begun the work at Slough from the mid 1930s that was to lead to radar, and with the approach of war from 1938 Professor Cockcroft and his team at the Cavendish were initiated into the secrets of the system at Bawdsey. The concern for atomic energy originated by the universities thus led to very considerable university and industrial collaboration during the war in the production of the bomb as a weapon.
