The Rothschild scheme was introduced in the UK in 1972 and there have been recent calls for a similar approach from Australian government departments. However, numerous reviews and reports on the scheme have shown it to be largely ineffective, inefficient, inflexible and unbalanced. Consequently, it has failed to produce a coherent national research program. A database scan of the literature confirms these conclusions. Some dismantling of the scheme has now taken place in the UK.
Lord Rothschild, ‘The organisation and management of government R & D’ in Lord Privy Seal, A Framework for Government Research and Development, Cmnd. 4814, Her Majesty's Stationery Office (HMSO), London, November 1971.
Lord Privy Seal, A Framework for Government Research and Development, HMSO, London, July 1972.
Report of the Independent Inquiry into the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, AGPS, Canberra, August 1977.
See ASTEC, Future Directions for CSIRO, AGPS, Canberra, 1985.
Memorandum of the Council of the Royal Society on the Consultative Document, A Framework for Government Research and Development, February 1972.
R. M. Mason, A Study of Commissioned Research, report prepared for the Advisory Board for the Research Councils, London, 1983.
Herman R.. 1986. . ‘Pattie wants a science policy for Britain’. . New Scientist . , Vol. 109((1500)) 20 March;: 25
Cottrell A.. 1986. . ‘Government research and development reorganisation in the UK in 1972’. . Science and Public Policy . , Vol. 13((1)): 55––7. .
Mason, op. cit.
‘Research councils attack government bureaucracy’, New Scientist, 81, 1144, 1 March 1979, p. 652.
‘British research scrutinised again’. Nature, 319, 6050, 16 January 1986, pp. 163–4.
Hamer M.. 1985. . ‘French transport steps ahead’. . New Scientist . , Vol. 106((1455)) 9 May;: 16––19. .
Quoted in Herman, op. cit.
‘Inquest of enquiry into research’, Nature, 312, 5991, 15 November 1984, pp. 183–4.
‘A council ripe for abolition’, Nature, 311, 5986, 11 October 1984, p. 493.
Dickson D.. 1981. . ‘Gowans washes hands of Rothschild’. . Nature . , Vol. 290((5806)) 9 April;: 435 Science, Technology and Human ValuesNew ScientistNatureidem.NatureNatureNatureNatureNatureNatureNew ScientistNew ScientistOutlook on Science PolicyScience in ParliamentNatureidem.NatureScience and Government Report