ABSTRACT
This chapter describes a query into a problem: why were so many resources committed to Jodrell Bank, the largest non-nuclear university-based scientific project in Britain. It discusses how some research at Jodrell Bank became tied to the use of multipurpose large dishes, and the decision to begin a project on a large, steerable radio telescope. The chapter then look at how this project was promoted, from both sides: the promoters and the bodies that influenced the allocation of financial resources. These bodies included the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR), the University Grants Committee (UGC), the Treasury, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), the Nuffield Foundation and the Ministry of Supply. Jodrell Bank created problems in that it was a large, civil, non-nuclear, university-based capital project, with no obvious predecessor. The Foundation's financial resources had soared along with Morris Motors stock in the post-war automobile boom.
