The Royal Society and the Rothschild ‘Controversy’

Presenter: Neil Calver

Published: February 2013

Age: 14-19 and upwards

Views: 1309 views

Tags: royal;society;government;funding

Type: Lectures

Source/institution: Royal Society

In the early months of 1971 the Heath government asked Lord Victor Rothschild to Ôthink the unthinkableÕ in his investigation into government policy. His subsequent report on research funding proposed something the Royal Society judged to be wholly unreasonable: that politicians were better suited to control the funding and direction of applied research than the scientists undertaking it.