REUTERS/JOHN KOlESidiS

LEADING RESEARCH ECONOMIES IN A CHANGING KNOWLEDGE NETWORK

JUnE 2012
Jonathan adams Jon stroll assoCIatIon oF rEsEarCh manaGErs and admInIstrators soUthamPton, UK

GloBal rEsEarCh dIGEst

GloBal rEsEarCh dIGEst LEADING RESEARCH ECONOMIES IN A CHANGING KNOWLEDGE NETWORK

There is no question that economic competitiveness depends on innovative processes and products developed by talented people working in knowledgebased organizations. The UKs Higher Education sector has a unique and critical role to play in overcoming present economic challenges because it is the source of skilled and knowledge competent people. Graduates and doctoral researchers contribute to the development of the knowledge capital within their institutions. That enables those institutions to generate cutting-edge papers and reports, create start-up companies and collaborate with local and global commercial partners. Technological advancement is the driving force behind economic growth, with new technologies accounting for about 80% of growth in GDP. But university graduates also leave those institutions and spread out across the economy bringing with them both knowledge and the ability to use knowledge to solve problems, to the huge benefit of their employers. Countries that invest in their research base are not only committing to the direct development of knowledge and innovation. They are also supporting the knowledge-rich environment in which people are trained and develop their talents. Laboratories and institutions with great research records produce people who have been soaked in that environment and have experienced the culture and discipline of identifying the most important information and then putting it to the best use. Whether this is in molecular biology, innovative materials, new design concepts or breakthrough economic theory, it all impacts on wealth creation and the quality of life. For these reasons the UKs level of investment, numbers of trained researchers and research base output and impact should be key performance indicators of value to the government as well as to research and higher education agencies and research-orientated institutions and companies. This report compares a key set of such indicators for the UK and a group of other leading research economies that collectively account for about 60% of global research publications in journals indexed by Thomson Reuters Web of KnowledgeSM.

THE fOllOwiNG ANAlySES USE CONSiSTENT COlORS TO dESiGNATE THESE COUNTRiES:

OECd data on Gross Expenditure on R&d (GERd) confirm that the Japan, the US and Germany are investing relatively more of GDP in their research base. Chinas GERD has increased dramatically in absolute terms and is also growing as a share of an expanding GDP. This represents a huge additional investment in global research. Within Europe, the UKs level of investment shows signs of decline and the UK remains behind the general EU target on expenditure. Germanys GERD is substantially greater than any other EU country while France has broadly maintained its research spend. Research spend in Asia will be the major change factor in the next decade. More researchers as well as greater expenditure are characteristic of the research economy in Japan and the US. EU countries have around 8 researchers per thousand people in the labor force but the US is at 9 and Japan at 10. Chinas labor force remains relatively unskilled, but in absolute numbers it has as many researchers OECDs relatively more skilled category of workers as western Europe. PhD training in China is still expanding. It is evident that the balance of highly skilled, R&D competent workers in Asia will grow very significantly over the next decade. This is unlikely to be counterbalanced by established economies.

GlOBAl RESEARCH diGEST

THE fOllOwiNG ANAlySES USE CONSiSTENT COlORS TO dESiGNATE THESE COUNTRiES:

Research papers (journal articles and reviews) are the primary route to disseminating new knowledge in most science disciplines. The US share of world papers has been declining for some time. The US was impacted initially by research growth in Europe. In Europe, the UK and Germany remain well ahead of France but all three see their world share declining. The established economies are all now affected by Asia and particularly China. Chinas output has risen so rapidly that it has more than doubled its share of world papers in the last decade. This unprecedented trajectory shows little sign of flattening. Research impact is critical as a marker of output that will likely support new products and processes. We index impact by comparing the average number of citations per paper to the relevant world average for year and subject area. The UK is on average now producing higher impact papers than other leading economies. Research quality in Europe has improved over the last decade and the USA is no longer the world leader. In Asia, China has improved its average performance. Data confirm that it is producing many excellent papers. Much of its output explosion is more modest in quality, however, which means that its average impact remains well behind world average. A Research footprint deconstructs the picture of citation impact by major discipline area to compare one country with others in the analysis and with a world average (1.0). The UK has a clear advantage in the life sciences whilst the US has somewhat the highest citation impact in physical sciences and engineering. However, Germany and France are now close behind the US in engineering and ahead in biology. China is clearly strongest in engineering and weaker in molecular biology. That reflects its historical research investment but it is now diversifying its research base into the life sciences. It will become equally competitive in these key areas. The changing geography of knowledge requires us to review our assumptions. But the data on investment, workforce, outputs and impact point less to a weakening of old economies and more to unprecedented change in new research economies. What we see in China is written more finely but equally clearly for other Asia-Pacific countries, the Middle East, north Africa and Latin America. Brazil is a Latin-regional focus; Egypt is a key hub between the Middle East and Africa; China is diversifying a collaborative network around the Pacific basin. Future global research requires a shift in mindset towards balanced partnerships in which the old alliances will not always lead. New economies bring new ideas about problem definition and problem solving as well as innovative outcomes. Universities can lead the way in establishing knowledge partnerships, showing governments where national interest could be directed. Knowledge will be gained not only through intelligence and literature reviews but much more via hands-on engagement.

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ABOUT THOMSON REUTERS

Thomson Reuters is the worlds leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals. Our Research Analytics solutions from the IP & Science business allow administrators to track, measure, analyze and compare research at their institution and others around the world. Based on the objective, reliable data in Web of Science, these offerings provide insight into trends and performance, giving leaders concrete evidence to define strategic direction. For more information, go to researchanalytics.thomsonreuters.com/impact/

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jonathan Adams is Director, Research Evaluation. He was a founding Director of Evidence Ltd, the UK specialist on research performance analysis and interpretation and was formerly a member of the science policy staff of the UK Advisory Board for the Research Councils.

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