The failure to formulate a national science policy: Israel's Scientific Council, 1948-1959

This article analyzes the failure to formulate a national science policy in Israel's early years by tracing the administrative genealogy of the Scientific Council (1948-59), which was established to manage and coordinate civil applied scientific research in Israel. The failure of the council is analyzed as part of wider debates concerning the future of the academic and scientific research systems and the implementation of Israeli state ideology (mamlakhtiyut) in this period. The story of the council sheds light on important aspects of the formation of Israeli higher education and scientific research institutions and on the close but complex relations between science and politics in the early years of the state.