[EQ] Knowledge, networks and nations Global scientific collaboration in the 21st century

Knowledge, networks and nations Global scientific collaboration in the 21st century

ISBN: 978-0-85403-890-9 - The Royal Society, March 2011

Available online PDF [114p.] at: http://bit.ly/hzcUo0

 

“…..Science is a global enterprise. Today there are over 7 million researchers around the world, drawing on a combined international R&D spend of over US$1000 billion (a 45% increase since 2002), and reading and publishing in around 25,000 separate scientific journals per year.

 

These researchers collaborate with each other, motivated by wishing to work with the very best people and facilities in the world, and by curiosity, seeking new knowledge to advance their field or to tackle specific problems. Knowledge, Networks and Nations reviews, based on available data, the changing patterns of science, and scientific collaboration, in order to provide a basis for understanding such ongoing changes.

 

It aims to identify the opportunities and benefits of international collaboration, to consider how they can best be realised, and to initiate a debate on how international scientific collaboration can be harnessed to tackle global problems more effectively.

 

From Singapore to South Africa, new researchers and research communities are reshaping the landscape for science and innovation, so long dominated by the USA, Japan and Europe. This report explores this changing geography of science and innovation. In Part 1, it maps and investigates where and how science is being carried out around the world and the ways in which this picture is changing.

 

·         Science in 2011 is increasingly global, occurring in more and more places than ever before. Science is addressing questions of global significance. It is supported by governments, business, philanthropists and charities.

·         There are particular countries where this increased activity is especially striking, with investment and scientific productivity outstripping general trends of growth. The rise of China has been especially notable, overtaking Japan and Europe in terms of its publication output in recent years. Beyond China, rapid developments have also taken place in India, Brazil and new emergent scientific nations in the Middle East, South-East Asia and North Africa, as well as a strengthening of the smaller European nations.

·         However, the traditional ‘scientific superpowers’ still lead the field. The USA, Western Europe and Japan all invest heavily in research and receive a substantial return in terms of performance, with large numbers of research articles, the lion’s share of citations on those articles, and successful translation, as seen through the rates of patent registration.

·         The continued strength of the traditional centres of scientific excellence and the emergence of new players and leaders point towards an increasingly multipolar scientific world, in which the distribution of scientific activity is concentrated in a number of widely dispersed hubs.

·         Beyond these hubs, science is also flourishing. The recognition of the role that science can play in driving economic development, and in addressing local and global issues of sustainability, has led to increased research activity and the application of scientific method and results within less developed countries.

 

 

Content

Executive summary

Recommendations

Introduction: going global

Part 1: Scientific landscape in 2011

Part 2: International collaboration

2.1 Patterns of collaboration

2.1.1 Collaboration in a national context

2.1.2 Who is collaborating with whom?

2.2 Regional collaboration

2.2.1 South–South collaboration: a growing trend

2.3 Why collaborate?

2.3.1 Seeking excellence

2.3.2 The benefits of joint authorship

2.3.3 Capacity building through collaboration.

2.3.4 The geopolitical potential of scientific collaboration

2.4 Underlying networks

2.4.1 Tapping into the global networks of science

2.5 Enabling collaboration to promote excellent science

2.5.1 Technology

2.5.2 Funding mechanisms
2.6 Harnessing collaboration

Part 3: Global approaches to global problems

Conclusions and recommendations:

Cultivating the global scientific landscape

Glossary of acronyms

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