The R&D funding decision: The need for a systematic approach

There is an abundance of techniques for selecting between potential R&D projects. A brief taxonomy of these indicates the importance of the role of both dynamics and learning in such evaluations. This may be an implicit indication that a systemic feature to the funding decision is required. System Dynamics (SD) then seems to be an appropriate method to explore resource allocation within R&D. Insight models using system dynamics further highlight the systemic nature of resource allocation decisions and a simple model confirms the importance of soft factors in such decisions. Hence we argue the need to develop and use a systemic approach to R&D resource allocation decisions.