ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the role of scientific and technical knowledge in the generation of innovations and to examine the provision made by governments for such change. But to begin with it is necessary to be clear about the reasons why technical innovation is important. Innovation and the idea of technical improvement have become virtually synonymous with economic success. The significance of technical change is assessed in a similar way by both Marxist and non-Marxist writers. Scientific research influences technical change significantly in ways which escape this linear model. Science is important in education, in the provision of informal advice and skills, for the publication of scientific information and also, although probably less often than scientists would wish to suggest, as a source of spin-offs when technologists are commissioned to build equipment for scientists. In the post-Second World War period the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has been steadily collecting information on national science and technology policies.
