In 1909 the government appointed an Advisory Committee for Aeronautics to advise it on aeronautical policy and to supervise research then being undertaken into the problems of flight. The committee's role was purly advisory and its goal was to bring some cohesion to the investigations being carried out by several bodies including the departments and the National Physical Laboratory. The committee was reconstituted three times. In 1920 it was renamed the Aeronautical Research Committee and given wider field of reference. In 1925 a Directorate of Scientific Research was set up which reverted to its original advisory role concerned solely with scientific research. In 1945 it became the Council and gained greater authority to review the progress of aeronautical research and to make recommendations on research which it considered desirable to initiate. In addition to the investigations conducted at the National Physical Laboratory on its behalf, the council was concerned with the work on aeronautics undertaken at the Royal Aircraft Establishment, in the universities and by firms.