Limited by Design is the first comprehensive study of the varying roles played by the more than 16,000 research and development laboratories in the U.S. national innovation system. Michael Crow and Barry Bozeman offer policy makers and scientists a blueprint for making more informed decisions about how to best utilize and develop the capabilities of these facilities. Some labs, such as Bell Labs, Westinghouse, and Eastman Kodak, have been global players since the turn of the century. Others, such as Los Alamos National Laboratory, have been mainstays of the military/energy industrial complex since they evolved in the 1940s. These and other institutions have come to serve as the infrastructure upon which a range of industries have relied and have had a tremendous impact on U.S. social and economic history.

Michael Crow and Barry Bozeman illustrate the histories, missions, structure, and behavior of individual laboratories, and explore the policy contexts in which they are embedded. In studying this large and varied collection of labs, Crow, Bozeman, and their colleagues develop a new framework for understanding the structure and behavior of laboratories that also provides a basis for rationalizing federal science and technology policy to create more effective laboratories.

The book draws upon interviews and surveys collected from thousands of scientists, administrators, and policy makers, and features boxed "lab windows" throughout that provide detailed information on the variety of laboratories active in the U.S. national innovation system.

Limited by Design addresses a range of questions in order to enable policy makers, university administrators, and scientists to plan effectively for the future of research and development.

Résumé
A unique survey of the past, present, and future roles of the diverse U.S. research and development laboratories, offering policy makers and scientists a blueprint for the best utilization of these facilities.

Contenu

The Sixteen Thousand: Policy Analysis, Institutional Design, and the National Innovation System 2. The Evolution of the National innovation System 3, A Snapshot of U.S. R& D Laboratories in the National innovation System: Structure Output and Design 4. Re-Thinking the U.S. National Innovation system: The Environtmental Context Taxonomy 5. Policy Implications of Laboratories' Environmental Context 6. Federal Laboratories in the National Innovation System 7. Technology Transfer and Commercial Impacts of Federal Laboratories 8. Strategic Policy-Making for the National Innovation System Appendix I: the National comparative R& D Laboratory Project Overview Appendix II: NCRDP Bibliography and Abstracts