Government funding for research benefit society.Do you agree Essay

Government funding for research benefit society.Do you agree - Essay Example Historically, R&D has been an indicator for innovation in any given country. For instance, the UK increased its spending on research and development between the years 1995 2011 to over  £27 billion (Muscio, Quaglione and Vallanti, 2013). However, there was a decline in research funding at the onset of economic crisis. Currently, UK government through RCUK (Research Councils UK) has initiated a new initiative known as Newton Fund to strengthen innovation and research (Hicks, 2012). By definition, research refers search for new concepts and knowledge while development is the process of bringing a new process or product from existing theory and knowledge (Chu, 2008). Therefore, this piece of work recommends that government funding for research benefits a society by ensuring that the country has a healthy society, productive economy and contributes to sustainability. The implication is that research and science are the heart of the nations economic growth, wider wellbeing, and prosperi ty. The conclusion as to why the government should fund research and development is always open to debate. Private sectors benefit from such initiatives, but they do not channel their benefits to societal well-being (Muscio, Quaglione, and Vallanti, 2013). However, it is the duty of the government to ensure that research and innovation is the core to economic growth. Central to this argument is that research and development has outstanding benefits to the society thus the government is obliged to channel funds to this sector. One underlying assumption for funding research is that countries use R&D to facilitate new commerce, and the aim is to improve the quality of life (Hicks, 2012). In fact, research should be part of a society’s infrastructure just like roads. As known to many, the government has the sole task of providing infrastructure, and it should take this as a responsibility. The