Recent years have witnessed much experimentation and improvisation within the research and development administrative framework, inspired by the Soviet government's recognition of the inefficiency and wastefulness inherent in the organization pattern established in the 1930's. More specifically, the government has sought to achieve more effective supervision, coordination, and control of research and development activities, and to derive faster and greater returns from its investment. The reforms of 1963, the most recent in an almost continuous series of reorganizations effected over the past half-dozen years, have made all research and development establishments, wherever located, responsible directly to the appropriate central organs, rather than the local economic councils set up in 1957, thus spelling the end of a short-lived experiment at decentralization. This volume surveys the background and development of the recent changes in the organizational structure of the Soviet research and development establishment and analyzes Soviet published data on the scale and the rate of growth of the research and development effort, the number of institutions, the size and composition of the scientific labor force involved, and the research and development budget. This study was prepared for the Office of Economic and Manpower Studies, National Science Foundation.
This carefully done work will provide a basic reference on the subject for all those concerned with problems of research and development, whether in industry or in government. It belongs in all university and industry libraries.