ABSTRACT
British science and technology policy has long been dominated by defence interests. From the late 1960s until well into the 1980s, half of government expenditure on research and development (R&D) went on defence, and the percentage was even higher in earlier years. After the relative decline of recent years, the current position is as follows:
• Overall national spending on R&D in 1993 (the last year for which full figures are available) was £13.75 billion, or 2.19% of GDR About a third of this was government funded, declining from 43% in 1985.
