Belgium's annual «horizontal» State budgets for scientific activities show a transition from the «golden» sixties and early seventies, with a privileged higher increase than the State budget as a whole, to recent years, during which the science budget has had some difficulty to maintain its level in absolute figures, constant prices. This evolution reflects mainly three phenomena: the completion, in 1971, of the legal and financial measures for university expansion gradually developed since the early sixties and creating a large reserve of student places; beginning in the same year, the surprising reducingrate of increase and even stagnation of student numbers, as against the previous explosion of these numbers; the fact that the expansion of scientific activities in higher education was not followed to the same extent by a process of «scientification» outside education.Out of the decade came probably less enthusiasm in society for science and many aften organizational problems. The main task for the next few years is, especially considering Belgian conditions and the context of economic crisis, to reinforce, through various policies, scientific activities and impact on productive and service industries as well as in the publicservice.