U.S. government recognizes new institutional form

A new institutional form has been growing in the United States since World War II for helping to accomplish technology-intensive public programs and improve public policy. The form — a so-called “Federally-Funded Research and Development Center” (FFRDC) — has now been officially recognized at a very high level of the Government.This article describes FFRDCs and their history, lists the important roles they can play on public problems, and concludes that the advantages they offer will not be fully utilized if they continue to be treated by some as an anomaly in the institutional makeup of the U.S. economy.