Origins of Strategic Basic Research and International Practices

Abstract

Strategic basic research is a novel concept evolves along with the historical development and understanding of what constitutes as basic research. It evolves from the interactions among different communities and their changing practices, the management and new demand from the government, the changing relationship between public and scientific community and the changes of funding structures for science and technology. This paper first reviews the historical development and understanding of basic research so that to investigate how has the concept of strategic basic research evolved, and then it summarizes the international practices of management and funding of basic research in the USA, EU, and Japan so that to identify how they address the emerging need of strategic basic research in their own context.