The authors analyze the organizational structure of the U.S. scientific community, examining the V. Bush report Science: the Endless Frontier (1945) as its conceptual basis, which remains the cornerstone of the American science policy. The authors point out decentralization as the key trait of this structure, which reveals itself in the absence of a unitary centre with a mission to formulate and implement science policy and high level of dissemination of self-government practices supported by a wide range of government agencies. This configuration determines the special position, occupied by the universities as universal research establishments possessing flexibility in cooperation with state agencies and private sector.

scientific community, U.S. science policy, university status in the USA