Tudományszervezési Tájékoztató, 1976
1. szám - Bibliográfia
SCIENCE MANAGEMENT BY ECONOMIC METHODS IN EAST EUROPE While the tasks to be solved by science are increasing in number, the steady increase in the budget for scientific research has stopped. The improvement of the organization and management of scientific research, however, releases significant potentials. Developing the economic methods of science management makes possible the more rational and effective utilization of expenditure on science. The social ownership of the means of production in the socialist countries make it possible steadily to develop the scientific activities. In the top-level management of science three main lines can be discerned: political leadership, scientific leadership and economic leadership. The responsibility for political leadership lies with the central government bodies; its objective is to bring the development of science into harmony with the country's needs, and to promote socialist integration. The characteristics of scientific leadership are determined by the laws of the creative process. The method of the economic leadership consists of forecasting, planning, financing systems, and of the introduction of economic accounting. In the economic management, long-range, strategic tasks are being solved by the leading state organs, while the medium- and short-term, tactical tasks by scientific and technological organizations. Experiences of the socialist countries show that the economic methods of research management may be adopted most effectively in those organizational forms which are based on the unity of science and production. PECULIARITIES OF "SYSTEMS DYNAMIC" DEVELOPMENT MODELS From the group of the cybernetic methods of forecasting, the study aims at outlining the main characteristics of Forrester's systems dynamics. Following the train of thought in model construction, the study outlines the main model elements, the structure of sub-systems, the flow loop connections, and the principles of the feed-back regulation operation. Essentially, it tends to draw the attention of futurologists to some new possibilities offered by the metod of systems dynamics. Most significant among them are the following: - Factor-elements reduced to units and index numbers related to the númber or population help the measurement of multiplying or lessening changes. - In flow systems, which are supposed to be exponential on experimental basis, operations with cycle sets are calculated simply in the form of annual rate balances. - Through its empirical multiplicator functions , several variants of feed-backs and controls can be solved relatively simply. - By the continuous synthesis of multiplicative connections and the related operations, certain qualitative concepts /e.g. life quality/ can be quantified and involved in the control of the operation of models. The study naturally points to the shortcomings, too, which result from the simplified mathematical abstractions and from the uncertainties of other assumptions. At the same time, the new solutions of systems dynamics are recommended as useful tools for the experimental researcher. NEW SCIENCE POLICY IN THE NETHERLANDS Fokele H.P. Trip, minister without portfolio, who is responsible for science policy, submitted his concrete proposals to the Dutch parliament , by which he tends to reformulate the country's R+D policy. An interdepartmental committee was set up for the central, management of R+D policy with the task of coordinating researches in 140
