History of Federal Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDC) (Contributors to national security, science, and engineering throughout a turbulent history)

Speaker:  Cliff Jacobs

Federally funded research and development centers (FFRDCS) area special class of Government Owned and Contractor Operated (GOCO) and Contractor Owned and Contractor Operated (COCO) research and development (R&D) facilities that share aspects of private and public ownership. FFRDCs have made major contributions to nation and are praised as national treasures, but FFRDCS have also been the focus of much criticism through the years. Based largely on the work of others, this talk traces the history of FFRDCS through four periods: (1) the World War II era, which saw the birth of federal R&D centers that would eventually become FFRDCS; (2) the early Cold War period, which exhibited a proliferation of FFRDCS despite their unclear legislative status and growing tension with an increasingly capable and assertive defense industry, (3) there-evaluation and retrenchment of FFRDCS in the 1960s and early 1970s, which resulted in a dramatic decline in the number of FFRDCS; and (4) the definition and codification of the FFRDC entity in the late 1970s and 1980s, when Congress and the executive branch worked together to formalize regulations to control FFRDCS. The status of FFRDCS at the end of the twentieth century is stable, but management practices and performance continue to arose interest in Congress.

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