UK centre-stage in scientific research
31 May
The MRC has welcomed the Department for Trade and Industry’s latest report on the performance of the UK research base. Results have shown an increase in the UK’s share of the world’s most influential scientific papers, with particularly strong performance in the biological sciences, pre-clinical health-related research and clinical sciences.
The report confirms that the UK’s research output is second only to the US in terms of achievement. Most significantly, the UK’s share of the most highly cited papers is increasing, with 13.3% of the world share of the highest impact papers – an increase on last year and a more consistent performance than most countries across all fields of research.
The UK’s strongest overall performance was in the natural sciences. Only Germany and the USA are as consistent across all areas of research. China is rapidly increasing its global share of publication and citations and this is affecting the proportions for other countries with a more established science base.
The UK’s strong international excellence has been achieved with lower overall investment compared to any of its competitors. The UK ranks 18th in the world, and lowest amongst all G8 countries, for its public expenditure on research, as a fraction of GDP, while it has moved to the very top of the G8 league table, ahead of the USA, in the impact (citations per publication) in biomedical research. Compared to other countries, the UK has a smaller proportion of people with research training. However the country has achieved a high level of research productivity, with regard to both publications and trained scientists.
The MRC’s chief executive, Colin Blakemore, said:
“I am delighted that these new figures show the UK continuing to punch so far above its weight in world science. Especially gratifying is our leading performance in the share of citations for not only preclinical biomedical research, for which many funders are responsible, but also clinical sciences, which the MRC has supported strongly over many decades.”
The complete report is available for download.
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