ABSTRACT
co-operative industrial research is in some respects more advanced in Great Britain than elsewhere, partly because of the peculiarly suitable conditions for its development to be found in our ancient industries, the relative smallness of the majority of our industrial enterprises and the fewness of our scientific population, but also because of the strong lead and the incentives afforded by Government assistance over a long period. At the same time, the effect of Government assistance has been to produce a restricted pattern of organizations compared with the varied experimental approach to the same problem in, for example, the United States. This is not to say that research in Great Britain is regimented into uniformity. With the British genius for making systems work without undue organization, the research system of the country is a loose and many-sided adaptation of organizations originating in different ways from private benefactions, collective action and State intervention. It is difficult, therefore, to present a connected or systematic account of co-operative research conducted in Great Britain.
