ABSTRACT
The borders between activities that are directed towards adding to the stock of scientific and technical knowledge and activities which have other aims are notoriously vague. The stock of qualified scientists and engineers is another indicator of the resources devoted to science and technology. Patent statistics provide one measure of the output gained from these resources. The amount of resources directly devoted to science and technology in the UK is quite substantial. The chapter examines indications of the scale of the activities and attempts to give some idea of their rate of growth. Three indications of the size of the 'science and technology industry' are used, two of which refer to inputs and one to outputs. The two measures of inputs are expenditure on research and development and the employment of qualified scientists and engineers, while the number of patents issued give one indication of the output arising from these inputs.
