Scientific Industrial Association

one of the forms in which science is linked to industry in the USSR. Such associations are established from scientific research institutes, which direct the associations. Associations usually also include as legal entities technological and planning-design organizations, experimental facilities, and plants for series production. Scientific industrial associations are administered by a general board of directors headed by a general director, who at the same time is the director of the scientific research institute. Scientific industrial associations appeared in the USSR in 1967. Their establishment makes possible improvement of management of the process of linking science and production, and also maximum reduction of the length of the cycle from research to the series production of new equipment.

In a scientific industrial association the organizational detachment of various stages of the process of the development and mastery of the production of new equipment is eliminated, and continuity of scientific and technological progress is ensured. Possibilities open up for participation of planners, designers, production engineers, and production workers in the development of scientific and technical ideas, beginning with the research stage. Scientific industrial associations are frequently charged with ensuring a high scientific and technological level of their subsectors of industry, coordinating projects conducted by the design and industrial services of enterprises, and providing technical aid to enterprises in adopting new products, manufacturing processes, and equipment.

An example of the linking of science and industry is the Pishchepromavtomatika Scientific Industrial Association in the city of Odessa, where the entire work cycle, from research to the series production of new equipment and its adoption at enterprises, is carried out on an integrated basis. This association consists of research and planning institutes, design and industrial offices, an equipment acquisitions office, a start-up and adjustment organization, an experimental facility, and an enterprise for series production of new equipment. In addition, the corresponding appropriate personnel are trained by the association.

Considerable attention is also paid to the linking of science and production in other socialist countries, where associations similar in structure to the scientific industrial association have taken shape.