Science—The Endless Frontier

A 1945 report by Vannevar Bush proposing sustained federal support for scientific research, especially basic research, as a foundation for public health, security, and prosperity.

Vannevar Bush: An American engineer and science administrator who led wartime research coordination and wrote Science—The Endless Frontier. Bush wrote the report in response to President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s request for a postwar science policy.
Basic research: Research undertaken to expand knowledge without a predetermined practical application as its primary goal. Bush argued that practical advances depend on a continuing supply of knowledge from basic research.
National Science Foundation: A United States federal agency that supports research and education across science and engineering. The report proposed a national foundation to fund research and strengthen scientific institutions.
Postwar scientific research in the United States: The expansion of federally supported scientific research in the United States after World War II. The report supplied a prominent rationale for sustaining wartime-scale research investment in peacetime.
Public funding of science: Government financial support for scientific research conducted by public or private institutions. The report’s central proposal continues to raise questions about public purposes and accountability.
World War II: A global war fought from 1939 to 1945 between the Allied and Axis powers. Wartime mobilization demonstrated how federal coordination could accelerate scientific research.
Applied research: Research directed toward solving a particular practical problem or developing a specific use for knowledge. The report distinguished mission-directed work from the open-ended inquiry it urged government to support.
Federal research funding: Public money allocated by a national government to support scientific and technical research. Sustained federal funding is the report’s central policy instrument.
Linear model of innovation: A model that portrays innovation as a sequence from basic research through applied research and development to practical use. The report’s account of basic research enabling later applications became associated with this influential model.
Research priorities: Choices about which scientific questions and fields receive attention, funding, and institutional support. Bush favored investigator initiative, while public funders must still decide how to allocate limited resources.

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