Reviving the Spirit of Enterprise: Role of the Federal Labs
- 1 January 1986
- journal article
- research article
- Published by AIP Publishing in Physics Today
- Vol. 39 (1) , 42-50
- https://doi.org/10.1063/1.881064
Abstract
About 400 research facilities officially classified as Federal laboratories employ nearly 185 000 of the nation's scientists and engineers and account for roughly $18 billion per year—a third of all Federal R&D funding in fiscal 1985. Most of this support went to a relatively few large centers devoted to energy and weapons research, highenergy physics experiments, medical programs and space science and exploration. Besides the multipurpose national labs such as Sandia, Argonne, Los Alamos and the National Bureau of Standards, which perform a broad range of R&D activities, the full roster includes a diversity of installations, including the Boll Weevil Research Laboratory; the National Radio Astronomy Observatory; the Insect Attractant, Behavior and Basic Biology Center; the FBI Laboratory; and even the National Zoo. Despite the contributions of the Federal labs, how they can enrich the nation's R&D enterprise with “public technology” has been a subject of concern in Washington for decades.Keywords
This publication has 1 reference indexed in Scilit:
- Federal laboratory directory 1982Published by National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) ,1983