AbstractThis document was prepared by the UNESCO Division of Science and Technology Policies for the Conference of Ministers Responsible for Science and Technology Policies in the European and North American Region (MINESPOL II), held in Belgrade (Yugoslavia), September 1978. It describes the place of the budget in the governmental decision making and examines the main components and characteristics of the types of budget most frequently employed in the countries of the European and North American region. Consideration is then given to the possibility of explicitly integrating S and T in the State budgeting procedure, either by preparing a compositead hocbudget exclusively concerned with R and D or by preparing a functional programme budget using a functional classification in which the entire field of S and T is categorized as a fully-fledged State function. Mention is made in conclusion of some scientific methods which offer a framework for negotiation in the discharge of governmental responsibilities and may be used in the programme budgeting of S and T by function.