---
title: "History of science policy"
chunk: 4/4
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_science_policy"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T03:12:21.965426+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

=== State funding cuts ===
Starting with the first Oil shock, an economic crisis hit the western world which made it more difficult for the states to maintain their uncritical funding of research and teaching. In the United Kingdom, the University Grants Committee started to lower their annual block grant for certain universities as soon as 1974. This was compounded by the access to power of the Thatcher government in 1979, who pledged a radical reduction of public spending. Between 1979 and 1981, more cuts in the block grant threatened universities and became opportunities seized by certain actors (heads of departments, vice-chancellors, etc.) for radical reorganisation and reorientation of the university's research.
In 1970 in the United States, the Military Authorization Act forbade the DOD to support research unless it had "direct or apparent relationship
to a specific military function." This cut the ability of the government to fund basic research.

=== Selectivity ===
In order to administer severely depleted resources in a (theoretically) transparent manner, several selectivity mechanisms were developed through the 1980s and 1990s. In the United Kingdom, the funding cuts of 1984–1986 were accompanied by an assessment of the quality of research. This was done by estimating outside research income (from research councils and private business), as well as "informed prejudice" by the experts on the UGC. This became the first Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), soon to be followed by many others.
In France, selectivity is exercised through various means. The CNRS evaluates regularly its units and researchers. For this reason, through the 1980s–90s, the government has attempted to privilege funding for researchers with a CNRS affiliation. With the creation of a contract system finalised in 1989, all research was submitted to approval of the university for inclusion in the contract passed with the Education Ministry. This allowed universities to select and privilege research and researchers they considered better than others (usually those associated to the CNRS or other grands corps de recherche).
Critics of selectivity systems decry their inherent biases. Many selectivity systems such as the RAE estimate the quality of research by its income (especially private income), and therefore favour expensive disciplines at the expense of cheap ones (see Matthew effect). They also favour more applied research (liable to attract business funding) at the expense of more fundamental science. These systems (as well as others such as bibliometry) are also open to abuse and fixing.

== 21st-century policy ==
The NSF and OSTP have established a Science of Science and Innovation Policy program known as SciSIP, aimed at understanding the field itself.
The European Union manages research funding through the Framework Programmes for Research and Technological Development.

== See also ==
Big Science
National laboratories
Space race
History of military science
Research and development
Science policy

== References ==