The Management of Science: Proceedings of Section F (Economics) of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Sheffield, 1989

191 Pages·1991·16.279 MB·English

by  Douglas Hague (eds.)

THE MANAGEMENT OF SCIENCE
THE
MANAGEMENT OF
SCIENCE
Proceedings of Section F (Economics) of the
British Association for the Advancement of
Science, Sheffield, 1989
Edited by Douglas Hague
Associate Fellow
Templeton College, Oxford
Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN 978-0-333-52540-1 ISBN 978-1-349-21275-0 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-21275-0
© The British Association for the Advancement of Science, 1991
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1s t edition 1991
All rights reserved. For information, write:
Scholarly and Reference Division,
St. Martin's Press, Inc., 175 Fifth Avenue,
New York, N.Y. 10010
First published in the United States of America in 1991
ISBN 978-0-312-05323-9
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
British Association for the Advancement of Science, Section F
(Economics). Meeting (1989: Sheffield, Eng.)
The management of science: proceedings of Section F (Economics)
of the British Association for the Advancement of Science,
Sheffield, 1989/edited by Douglas Hague.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-312-05323-9
1. Science and state-Congresses. 2. Science-Economic aspects
-Congresses. 3. Research-Economic aspects-Congresses. 1. Hague,
Douglas Chalmers. 11. Title.
Q124.6B75 1991
338.9'26----dc20 90--8895
CIP
Contents
Acknowledgement vi
Notes on the Contributors VB
Introduction by Douglas Hague ix
1 Can Scientists Manage Science? Douglas Hague 1
2 Wh at Do We Know about the Usefulness of Science?
The Case for Diversity Keith Pavitt 21
3 Are Some Science Policy Issues Inevitable, Irresolvable
and Permanent? Frederick Dainton 47
4 The Management of Science in the 1990s: An American
Perspective Roberta Balstad Miller 69
5 The Management of Pure and Applied Science Research
in Academia Eric Ash 85
6 Finance Policy and High Politics in a European Scientific
Laboratory: The Conflicts over Financing CERN in the
Late 1950s and Early 1960s lohn Krige 98
7 European Count ries in Science-based Competition:
The Case of Biotechnology Margaret Sharp 112
8 Overseas Funding for Industrial R&D in the United
Kingdom Paul Stoneman 131
9 Public Understanding and the Management of Science
Brian Wynne 143
Index 171
V
Acknowledgement
I should like to acknowledge the contribution to the preparation of
this book of Dr D. Reisman, editor of the Seetion F Series, and his
colleagues on the Section F Committee. I should also like to thank
the authors of the papers for the thought, time and trouble they took
in preparing and presenting them.
DOUGLAS HAGUE
vi
Notes on the Contributors
Eric Ash has been Rector of Imperial College, London, since 1985.
His numerous publications include papers on patents, physical
electronics and selected areas of engineering. He was Professor of
Engineering at University College, London from 1967 to 1985.
Frederick Dainton is a physical chemist who has been a lecturer at
Cambridge and a Professor at Leeds and Oxford and whose
researches have been concerned with problems in reactions, kinetics
and mechanisms, especially in chain reactions, polymer-, radiation-,
and photo-chemistry. He has also been Vice-Chancellor of
Nottingham University, Chairman of the Council for Scientific
Policy, The Advisory Board for the Research Councils, The
University Grants Committee, the British Library Board and the
National Radiological Protection Board. In nominal retirement he is
Chancellor of Sheffield U niversity, Chairman of the Council of the
Royal Postgraduate Medical School and a Governor of the London
School of Economics.
Douglas Hague is Chairman of the Metapraxis Group of companies,
an Associate Fellow of Templeton College, Oxford, and Honorary
Visiting Professor at both Manchester Business School and the
Management School, Imperial College, London. He has considerable
experience of government bodies, having been Deputy Chairman of
the Price Commission in the 1970s and Chairman of the Economic
and Social Research Council from 1983 to 1987. He was a personal
economic adviser to Mrs Thatcher from 1966 to 1979. Sir Douglas's
writing covers a considerable field, from A Textbook of Economic
Theory (written with A. W. Stonier) to interdisciplinary work on the
role of quangoes in British and American Government. He also
wrote (with Geoffrey Wilkinson) The Official History of the
Industrial Reorganisation Corporation.
vii
VIII Notes on the Contributors
John Krige is currently the leader of the History of CE RN project
which is based in Geneva and independently financed by
contributions from a number of CERN member states, including the
United Kingdom. He was a major contributor to the two-volume
History oJ CERN and is the author of a large number of articles in
both natural and social sciences. He is also apart-time Visiting
Fellow of the Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex.
Roberta Balstad Miller is the Director of the Division of Social and
Economic Science at the National Science Foundation in
Washington, Oe. She is the author of City and Hinterland: A Case
Study oJ Urban Growth and Regional Development and co-editor of
Science Indicators: Implications Jor Research and Policy.
Keith Pavitt is Professor of Science and Technology Policy at Sussex
University and Deputy Director of the Science Policy Research Unit.
He is joint author of The Economics oJ Technical Change and
International Trade and has published numerous papers on the
economics and management of science and technology.
Margaret Sharp is a Senior Research Fellow at the Science Policy
Research Unit, University of Sussex. She has written extensivelyon
Europe and new technologies, including biotechnology. Her books
include The New Biotechnology: European Governments in Search oJ
a Strategy and Strategies Jor New Technologies.
Pani Stoneman is Reader in Economics at the University of Warwick.
Dr Stoneman is the author of The Economic Analysis oJ Technology
Change, The Economic Analysis oJ Technology Policy and many
other books and articles on the economic aspects of technology and
technology-related issues.
Brian Wynne is Reader in Science Studies and Director of the Centre
for Science Studies and Science Policy at Lancaster University. Since
the 1970s he has taught and researched on the sociology of science,
focusing especially on the authority of scientific knowledge in public
issues such as risk management. He is the author of Rationality and
Ritual: The Windscale Inquiry and Nuclear Decisions in Britain and
Risk Management and Hazardous Wastes: Implementation and the
Dialectics oJ Credibility and co-editor (with Roger Smith) of Expert
Evidence: Interpreting Science in the Law.
Introduction
DOUGLASHAGUE
This book contains the papers presented to the Economics Section
(Section F) of the British Association during its annual meeting in
Sheffield in September 1989. The theme-The Management of
Science-was chosen for two main reasons. First, science policy is a
relatively new field of study to wh ich an inevitably small group of
specialists are making increasingly important contributions. More
than half the papers in this volume are contributed by such
specialists, namely, Keith Pavitt, lohn Krige, Margaret Sharp, Paul
Stoneman and Brian Wynne.
Second, the issues which science policy tackles are themselves
becoming increasingly important. In the United Kingdom, if one
aggregates expenditure on research in science and technology in
universities, the government is at present providing around f1 billion
per annum of finance. Part of this is funded through the University
Finance Committee and the remainder through the government's
Research Councils. Even f1 billion may be a smallish sum in terms of
total government spending or total gross domestic product (GDP) in
the United Kingdom, but it is nevertheless a very considerable sum of
money, though one wh ich most scientists would like to see
substantially increased.
It is gene rally accepted that the current phase of development in all
industrial countries is strongly based on scientific research and
development. It is therefore important that expenditure on research
in the Uni ted Kingdom should be large enough-but not larger than is
needed-to allow Britain to benefit as fully as possible from research
in science and technology. These are crucial issues.
My own chapter sets the scene by considering the contribution
which economics and the other social sciences can make to science
policy research, not least by asking the right questions. These are
IX
x Introduction
questions which, because of their training, scientists rarely ask
themselves. The chapter puts these questions in a practical context,
relating them especially to the way in which the scientists,
businessmen and civil servants who are responsible for managing
science policy at the highest level in the Uni ted Kingdom tackle the
issues which confront them. It concludes that science policy will be
most effective if made by interdisciplinary teams, where social
science-if not social scientists-is adequately represented.
One of the dangers of debates on science policy between scientists
and non-scientists is that they fluctuate between grand philosophical
arguments and generalisations, often of dubious value, based on
particular examples. As an antidote to this, Professor Pavitt was
asked to provide an analysis of what is actually going on. A
distinguished member of the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU) at
the University of Sussex, Professor Pavitt shows that, as usual, the
conventional wisdom is not always correct. For example, he
questions the belief-which indeed I quote in my chapter-that science
is now in a steady state, showing that there is not stagnation but
vigorous growth in the numbers of scientists and engineers employed
in both the United States and Japan. The United Kingdom does,
however, seem to be lagging, with the UK public sector lagging most
of all. Since that was the main concern of my own chapter, perhaps I
am right to accept the 'steady state' there. We must remember,
however, the precept of general systems theory that a large system
will always be more stable than so me of its sub-systems.
Professor Pavitt also shows that the impact of science on
technology is more complex than most public discussion suggests and
goes on to question the belief that science-based research is
increasingly feeding directly into technology. Not least important, he
challenges the belief-especially in some quarters in the Uni ted
Kingdom-that research will be more effective if concentrated in
fewer institutions.
On this basis, the discussion is taken in several directions. First, as
a counter-balance to my own views, Lord Dainton-a distinguished
scientist and scientific administrator-looks at similar issues to mine,
but as a scientist. Drawing on his enormous experience, Lord
Dainton's chapter gives an authoritative survey of the key issues in
science policy today in the United Kingdom. I find it interesting that
the only substantial difference between Lord Dainton and me is over
the efficacy of management techniques like corporate planning,
though I would not retract one word from what I say on this in my