The role of basic research in economic development

Sir Isaac Newton's oft quoted statement, "If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants", applies as much to contemporary researchers as it did when he himself uttered the words. The. incredible technical advances that are now a commonplace part of our everyday lives would not have been possible without the works of such people as Newton, Thompson, Faraday, Maxwell, Rontgen, Becquerel, Bloch and Purcell, Fleming, Watson and Crick and many, many others. For the past decade the research environment in most countries has been faced with a difficult quandary As modern knowledge based economies expand, there has been some debate as to whether public funded research should be focused on the more immediately practical opportunities offered by applied research. What is the appropriate role for public funded basic research, and given that role, what proportion of public funding should be directed toward basic research to nurture a successful knowledge based economy in the twenty-first century? This paper will review the recent national funding allocations for basic and applied research, and will use OECD data to compare GDP growth over the past decades for reporting OECD countries.