Forecasting, development and innovation in the field of chemicals

Abstract

A perusal of the United Kingdom's National Research Development Corporation (NRDC) bulletin Inventions for Industry, September 1971, will reveal:. that the NRDC was set up 22 years ago to promote practical technology and encourage, in the public interest, the development and exploitation of U.K. inventions; and. that NRDC invests with industry in new products and ventures which industry would like to launch or accelerate, but which financial stringency on the one hand, or a reluctance to shoulder the entire risk involved on the other, may inhibit. This article by Brian Locke, Head of the Planning Department of NRDC and former Manager of NRDC's Industrial Chemistry Group, is therefore of general interest to our readers because it gives some indication of how NRDC selects, from the numerous postulants, those chemical projects which could be developed into processes and/or products for the market. In other words, how NRDC creates a market to fit demand to output at the optimal time in order to justify investment in unproven innovations. Mr. Locke would be the last man to assure as that he has a definitive answer but the wisdom born of experience embedded in his article allows something to be inferred about procedures used for the selection of NRDC's investment portfolio. © 1972.