RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

abbreviation R and D, or R & D, in industry, two intimately related processes by which new products and new forms of old products are brought into being through technological innovation. abbreviation R and D, or R & D in industry, two intimately related processes by which new products and new forms of old products are brought into being through technological innovation. The direct relationship between science and industry began in the mid-19th century when scientists and inventors were called upon to supervise or consult on industrial production. Several industries in Germany and the United States established laboratories by 1900, but modern R and D emerged from the demands that were made on military technology during World Wars I and II. This government-sponsored military R and D resulted in spin-off civilian industrial developments in areas such as aircraft engines, nuclear power, and computer electronics. Government agencies are still the principal sponsors of R and D, contracting projects either to directly owned laboratories or to independent, company, or university laboratories. Research associations, which pool the R and D resources of an entire industry, have proved particularly effective in Japan and western Europe. Modern R and D programs carry out two types of research: basic research, which is directed toward a generalized goal within an industry (for example, genetic research in a pharmaceutical laboratory); and applied research, which directs the results of basic research toward the needs of a specific industry and results in the development of new or modified products or processes. In addition to carrying out basic and applied research and developing prototypes, the laboratory staff may also evaluate the efficiency and cost of the product. Additional reading History Kendall Birr, Pioneering in Industrial Research: The Story of the General Electric Research Laboratory (1957); W. Rupert Maclaurin and R. Joyce Harman, Invention and Innovation in the Radio Industry (1949), a detailed account of the technical problems solved in one area; Harry W. Melville, The Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (1962), a history of a government research department; and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, International Statistical Year for Research and Development: A Study of Resources Devoted to R and D in OECD Member Countries in 1963/64 (196768). General David Allison (ed.), The R and D Game: Technical Men, Technical Managers, and Research Productivity (1969), essays by 15 authors covering the whole field from creativity to administration, with an extensive bibliography; E. Duer Reeves, Management of Industrial Research (1967), a discussion of the integration of R and D into corporate structure; T.S. McLeod, Management of Research, Development, and Design in Industry (1969), basic problems of technical management; Carl Heyel (ed.), Handbook of Industrial Research Management, 2nd ed. (1968), essays by American managers on R and D problems as seen from the boardroom; Elting E. Morison, Men, Machines, and Modern Times (1966, reprinted 1984), an account of resistance encountered by new inventions; and Devendra Sahal, Patterns of Technological Innovation (1981), a book of case studies on a variety of topics. Organization Alexander O. Stanley and K.K. White, Organizing the R&D Function (1965), descriptions of the organizational structures of leading U.S. companies; I.D.L. Ball (ed.), Industrial Research in Britain, 6th ed. (1968), details and statistics of U.K. industry; John Cockcroft (ed.), The Organization of Research Establishments (1965), essays by directors of 15 leading U.K. and U.S. laboratories; G. Stuart Monteith, R and D Administration (1969), a detailed description of administrative procedures in the United Kingdom and United States, with an extensive bibliography; and Allan Cox, The Cox Report on the American Corporation (1982). Government Report of the Committee on the Management and Control of Research and Development (HMSO 1961); and National Academy of Sciences, Committee on Science and Public Policy, Basic Research and National Goals: A Report to the Committee on Science and Astronautics, U.S. House of Representatives (1965). Project management A popular treatment is Joseph J. Moder, Cecil R. Phillips, and Edward W. Davis, Project Management with CPM, PERT, and Precedence Diagramming, 3rd ed. (1983); a more complete work is J. Wiest and F. Levy, A Management Guide to PERT/CPM: With GERT/PDM/DCPM and Other Networks, 2nd ed. (1977). An interesting, practical approach is presented in John Mulvaney, Analysis Bar Charting: A Simplified Critical Path Analysis Technique (1969, reissued 1977).