Evaluating Financial Support of Research Programs

This study concerns the estimation of discounted, probable cost savings of undeveloped harvesting machinery as a means of determining the maximum financial support warranted for a particular research program. Production and cost standards for future mechanization are synthesized from engineering data. The probability of developing such machinery is estimated through use of the Pascal distribution for a population where variables can take on one of two values: success (1) or failure (0). The particular problem involved is development of mechanical harvesting for olives.