SPENDING ON RESEARCH

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29783, 28 March 1962, Page 15

SPENDING ON RESEARCH

Fall Denied By Minister Any suggestion that the amount spent on scientific research by the Government, as a proportion of the national income, had been declining over the last few years, was denied yesterday by the Minister in change of Scientific and Industrial Research (iMr Tennent).

This might be true of the allocation to the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, but not of scientific research as a whole, he said. It had to be realised that research was now carried on by nine separate Government agencies and that huge sums were also spent on research in the universities.

The report of the Royal Commission on State Services was expected to be published about the end of June. The terms of reference of the commission included the study of whether a commission of inquiry might be necessary to consider possibilities of better co-ordination in scientific research. The commission might decide that an inquiry would be beneficial, or that it was itself competent to make direct recommendations on the subject.

It was most important, Mr Tennent said, that there should be greater co-ordina-tion between the research programmes of the various Government agencies, and between Government and university scientific projects. Asked whether there was any likelihood of an early start on a building for the experimental nuclear reactor for the Institute of Nuclear Sciences at Gracefield, Mr Tennent said that the matter was “actively under action,” and that plans would be put before the Cabinet in a week or so.