Your sort of talking about FFRDC's. Part of their role as a non-profit , non-government agency is to "Consult" with the government. I worked at one for a while

Your sort of talking about FFRDC's. Part of their role as a non-profit , non-government agency is to "Consult" with the government. I worked at one for a while, we were held in very high regard amongst the Government. When they doled out new contracts they basically asked us our opinion for which company to choose, based on past performance. We would also review other contractors work and give it the thumbs up / thumbs down. This was on a much smaller scale. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_federally_funded_research_and_development_centers http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_federally_funded_resear...