The emergence of science policy

In spite of their rugged individualism and celebrated independence of mind, scientists have always sought, and often gained, government patronage. Indeed, in many countries of Continental Europe the academic scientists were mostly, in a technical sense, civil servants, although their ‘freedom to teach and to learn’ was usually well protected by long-established traditions of operational autonomy for state universities and scientific academies. Paradoxically, in France and Germany, where these traditions are still very much alive, academic science has resisted ‘collectivization’ more successfully than in countries such as Britain, where academics are not (at least in principle) government employees, and have always been very chary of putting themselves directly in the power of the state.

In the Anglo-Saxon countries, however, it was customary for state support for basic research to be very limited, except in fields such as medicine and agriculture with direct connections to major sectors of governmental responsibility. This custom changed radically in and after the Second World War [§4.2]. Public funds soon became so vital to the advancement of science – especially the academic research carried out in universities and other higher education institutions – that they largely determined its direction and shape.

One might say, however, that until the early 1970s the scientific community largely dictated the terms on which this support was provided.