Last July my Advisory Council on Scientific Policy appointed a special committee to consider as a matter of urgency the directions in which scientific research was most likely to promote an increase in the national productivity. The committee have been actively reviewing the numerous factors believed to affect industrial productivity and have already drawn attention to directions in which further research appears likely to contribute to increased productivity. Within the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, the various experimental stations have been instructed to give priority to problems of immediate importance and to intelligence and liaison services with industry in order to ensure that existing scientific knowledge is applied with maximum effect.