AbstractMankind's prospects both for finding new types of resources and for ensuring efficiency in resource utilization and substitution depend upon our success or failure in solving the problems of organizing and managing technological systems. A generalized scheme describing interaction among the basic elements of the management of national science and technology (ST) activity is outlined, and one particular element isolated for detailed examination: the system analysis and systematic assessment of new technology (SANT). The role of SANT in the context of decision‐making in the management of ST progress is described, together with the methodological arsenal available. No one technique is universally good; the problem is to find systematic means of using a selection of methods which mutually compensate for each other's weaknesses. Further difficulties are encountered over the non‐comparability or absence of initial data, and a framework for viewing the various classes of data available and making use of them is outlined. Examples are given of the practical application of SANT to problems such as the development of a macro‐model., for the planning of national ST policy, and a model of technological change in the area of the science, technology, and exploitation of computers. A system is described which handles the data stores and information flows necessary for performing SANT rou