3. PLANNING FOR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

by Professor P. M. S. Blackett

I intend to deal with the problems of formulating practical and realistic plans for the application of science and technology by the government of a newly emerging country. I will specifically have in mind the new African nations, since, for various historical reasons, they are particularly short of trained manpower.

The first thing which must strike, say, the Prime Minister or Minister of Finance of such a young nation, is that science and scientists are expensive and that their financial demands clash with the innumerable other demands on a country's very limited financial resources, and still more limited foreign currency.

In considering the formulation of national policy in relation to the application of science and technology and to the increase in material wealth, it is useful to distinguish three main aspects of this question.

The first is that of known and available technology. The majority of the most urgent needs of the emerging countries in the early stages of development come into this category. To set up a motor-bus service, it is necessary to have the foreign exchange to buy the vehicles and fuel, and the technical schools to train the drivers and repair personnel, but no research or development at all is needed. Nor is new research and development required to set up an airline, or a television system or an electricity supply, or a sewage system and piped water supply, or the majority of normal manufacturing plants. Though such projects do not involve any appreciable research and development, they do require a large supply of technically and scientifically trained personnel to run them.

The second most important aspect of the application of science and technology to a less-developed country is that concerned with problems which are related to the special conditions of the country, and which can only be solved on the spot. Prominent among these, of course, are problems in agriculture and medicine which have specific local significance and so cannot be studied elsewhere. Then there are many problems in meteorology, geology, geophysical surveying, road building and housing, where original research and development related to local conditions are required. In addition, many new technological problems arise in the setting up of local industries, because of the special properties of the local fuels, raw materials, textiles, foodstuffs, etc. In relation to these problems, the importance of a first-rate information service is vital. It must be made as easy as possible for the research and development personnel to be kept aware of the state of general world knowledge on a particular subject, so as not to be led by ignorance into expensive researches to find out what is already well known. The opposite danger is to assume too easily that some process, technique or method, which has long been in successful use in some other country, can be transferred without modification to a new situation.

The third aspect is concerned with the group of new technologies which are not yet in general use, but are still under development, mainly in the technologically advanced countries. I refer, for instance, to such things as solar heats, fuel cells, desalination of water, and a great many improved processes and manufactured goods. Though a close watch must be kept on these developments, I am convinced that the national economic and technological planning of a new country's development, over the next decade or so, should be based on what is now known.

It is essential that the applied scientist and technologist of the emerging countries should develop a sound sense of the economic realities of the related phases of research, development and production. The first two stages are expensive. Only when the last stage of production is reached is there any increase in material wealth. Though no one would admit to believing that modern science is a magic wand to be waved over a poor country to convert it into a rich one, not a few seem to act as if it were true! In fact, the advance of scientific technology is only a part of what must be a concerted national programme of educational, economic, industrial and social change.

(from New Scientist, 14th February, 1963)