AbstractBritain is no longer a pace-setter in the engineering industries but she was one of the first countries to establish the machinery for science and technology policy. There have been three ages of science policy—the golden age when science was the ‘motor of progress’; the age of the ‘counter-culture’ and ‘limits to growth’; and the current age of ‘strategic opportunity’. Science and technology policy has grown into an extensive and professional activity and the challenges to Europe from the USA and Japan require it to take on a new internationalism.