NCAR History

A Glance into NCAR's History

The National Conference on the Advancement of Research (NCAR) grew out of experiences during and immediately following World War II, when government interest and money transformed the scientific and research communities of the United States. Wartime agencies, the National Defense Research Committee (NDRC) and its successor, the Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD), created many new laboratories and research organizations, drawing numerous academics into the government/defense community. The success of significant war-related research projects convinced many in the government and much of the public of the benefits produced by research and development (R&D), and therefore, the need for continuing large-scale scientific efforts.

After the war, research efforts continued, and the R&D community searched for structures and processes that would produce effective management of resources and personnel. During wartime, managers and administrators working in Boston-area laboratories held meetings to discuss problems encountered at labs such as the Radio Research Lab, the Harvard Underwater Sound Lab, and various labs at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. As the United States settled back into times of peace, several in the group sought a way to continue sharing with and learning from others, and they planned a conference to be held at Pennsylvania State College.

In October 1947, 170 men attended the historic Conference on Administration of Research. Speakers from Bell Telephone Laboratories, Brookhaven National Laboratories, and Gulf Research and Development Company were just a few of the prestigious representatives in attendance. The first conference set the tone and character for succeeding meetings, annual events that came to be called the National Conference on the Advancement of Research, or NCAR.

NCAR, one participant said, "was a unique opportunity for people to go listen to people who had obviously been successful." The early NCARs established standards that are still evident today. NCAR provides members of four sectors - government, industry, academia, and nonprofit - with an arena in which to learn about managing research activities while at the same time meeting the people who know what work is being done as well as how to make it come to fruition. It is still the only place where people from all four sectors meet to discuss common issues, and it is still a small enough gathering that all attendees are encouraged to participate in the various sessions.

Participants in NCAR 51 face many of the same kinds of R&D challenges that conference founders confronted more than 50 years ago. With the end of the Cold War, the government is demobilizing and retrenching, the private sector is restructuring to meet the changing environment, and new technologies are recasting the world.

Eric Walker, one of NCAR's founding fathers, put it best. NCAR is "a platform at which people from government, industry, and universities could discuss common problems and cooperatively assist in their solution." NCAR 51 attendees will be up to the challenge.

Information on this page was taken from the publication, NCAR 50th Year.

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For more information, contact:
Debbie Boone
P.O. Box 117
Oak Ridge, TN 37831-0117
(423) 576-3776/FAX (423) 576-3643
E-mail: booned@orau.gov