A proper balance of Federal support between science carried out by individuals or small teams of investigators and large scientific data gathering programs is critical to maintaining the health of scientific research. The scientific enterprise in this country has always shown the highest levels of success because of the synergism generated between these two activities. These discoveries provide the fundamental basis for the application of scientific knowledge to national economic and societal goals.
Small science helps define the goals and directions of large scientific data gathering projects.
In turn, these data feed and are often best synthesized and interpreted by the long-term efforts of the small science community. In addition, because small science is typically done at universities, it provides students with an integral involvement in defining and solving scientific problems. Any erosion in Federal support for small science would therefore weaken not only the entire scientific enterprise, but also our future ability to utilize scientific information for the national good. A healthy balance between small science and large scientific data gathering programs should be a national strategic goal of the highest priority. The success of U.S. science in the twentieth century is due in large part to its diversity of scale and motive.