§ Mr. Adam Hunterasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if it is her policy to treat research and development expenditure as being part of the total overall cost of introducing new services or products; and if she will make a statement.
§ Mrs. ThatcherAs Cmnd. 5046 made clear, the purposes of my Department's support of scientific research through the research councils and University Grants Committee is to develop the sciences as such, to maintain a fundamental capacity for research, and to support higher education. The Office for Scientific and Technical Information supports experiments with new services only for research purposes of broad interest. Where marketable products result, their exploitation is the responsibility of the National Research Development Corporation. My Department's support for educational research is related partly to existing educational provision and partly to the introduction of new policies.