Catalogue description Department of Scientific and Industrial Research: Committee on Research Contracts with Universities

In September 1945 it was agreed by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, the Admiralty, the Ministry of Supply and the Ministry of Aircraft Production to adopt a common policy on the awarding of research contracts to universities. A Committee on Research Contracts With Universities was set up, formed of representatives from DSIR and the service and supply departments.

The committee considered the question of extra-departmental research work at universities, and co-ordinated the placing of relevant contracts. In doing this the committee had to ensure that: each government department placing a research contract was aware of all other contracts placed by other departments; all contracts were on similar terms; there was no duplication or overlapping in the contracts, and that in placing a contract, the research work did not interfere with existing university research work.

The committee worked on the basis that contracts of a generic and fundamental character should normally be placed by DSIR, whereas service departments could place contracts for work of specific interest to themselves and outside the scope of DSIR, or where a more appropriate department did not wish to award a contract. The committee membership was eventually widened to include representatives from the University Grants Committee, the Agricultural Research Council and the Medical Research Council among others. From December 1945 details of US military research contracts placed with British universities were circulated to members. DSIR research grants were offered as an alternative to research contracts to prevent potentially valuable results becoming exclusively American property.

The committee remained active until the dissolution of DSIR and the creation of the Science Research Council (SRC) and the Ministry of Technology in 1965. The grant activities of DSIR were taken over and operated by the SRC and other research councils. The Committee continued on a diminished scale, becoming more a clearing house operating through correspondence rather than regular meetings. It ceased to function by July 1974 owing to the greater flexibility of grant terms offered by the SRC and a growth in mutual exchange of information between the departments formerly represented on the committee.