Abstract : This report describes the results of an expert panel, referred to in this report as the Panel on the Future of Army Laboratories, assembled to consider how current trends in research and development (R&D) might unfold over time, and how those trends could affect the laboratories and R&D centers that support the Army. The panel was convened based on the idea that the U.S. Army will be in the midst of an unprecedented technical transformation for the foreseeable future as it rapidly adopts and adapts to cutting-edge science and technology to remain an effective and relevant fighting force. In this era of accelerating innovation, it is likely that many of the new concepts needed to make the Army's transformation a reality will be realized only through the discovery and application of breakthrough R&D. Therein lies a potential challenge for the Army's R&D planners. To support future decision making by those planners, the panel focused primarily on basic, or exploratory, research from which cutting-edge discovery, invention, and innovation might emerge, although the panel also examined, to some degree, applied research and technology development -- the other two components of science and technology (S&T). The panel focused on the following question: How can the Army get the best long-term value from its investments in basic research? Most of the recommendations made by the panel and documented in this monograph are within the Army's power to execute. However, some will need the support of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and even Congress. The panel believes that the large uncertainties in the threat that the nation will face in the coming decades make it imperative for the Army to improve the quality of its basic and applied research.