ABSTRACT
Economic competition plays, and by common consent should continue to play, a big part. That it does play a big part is apparent from the fact that the largest single contribution to civil research comes from private firms, most of them in competitive industry. It is liable to be particularly difficult with research, for research by definition deals in projects which are half-baked, will show their value only in the rather remote future, and meantime can be tried out only at the risk of considerable disturbance to production. At the university level, it is generally agreed that the most that can properly be done in the way of direction is, as the University Grants Committee has sometimes done—though it has usually been reluctant to go even so far—to earmark a grant for some broad field of research. The cooperative research association receive a grant from the D.S.I.R., which has certain limited powers of control over them.
