1/ It's crazy how much WWII and its aftermath shaped our current research system and its associated incentives: grants, patents, and power.

This letter from Sen. Kilgore illustrates how they basically made up what we take for granted:

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/102/2660/630

@anecdotal
2/ He proposes the current structure of the NSF - president appointed directed + board members.

The six-year board members remove power from the president because there will always be cross-administration people. Truman and Eisenhower were pushing very hard for only a director.
3/ Bush touches on the struggles over org structure in Pieces of the Action.

NASA followed the presidential-power-maximizing org structure which ultimately puts us in the situation were in today where NASA makes a new ten year plan every eight years. https://twitter.com/Ben_Reinhardt/status/1222909198150713344
4/ Kilgore proposes that all patents generated from government-funded research become public-domain.

Bush (who was another huge player in creating the structure) points out that patents give people the incentive to fund commercialization: https://twitter.com/Ben_Reinhardt/status/1222918039491891200
For the record I meant to h/t @anecdotal for pointing out the Kilgore article
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