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EUROPE IS STRUGGLING TO CATCH UP WITH THE US ON PRODUCING IMPORTANT SCIENCE AND IS IN DANGER OF BEING OVERTAKEN BY CHINA AND OTHER ASIAN COUNTRIES PDF Stampa E-mail

Published in the Science and Public Policy journal, “European paradox or delusion – are European science and economy outdated?” looked at the 495 most highly cited papers every third year from 1990 to 2011, across four fields: chemistry, physics, clinical medicine, and biochemistry and molecular biology. In total, 15,840 papers were analysed. In each field, the paper concludes, the number of papers produced in the US was typically one-and-a-half to three times higher than the EU’s count. While the EU was making progress in each field, this appeared largely attributable to US collaboration, not European achievements alone. And, in “hot areas” of research such as graphene – in which European researchers made the initial breakthrough – Asian nations such as China and South Korea had already overtaken the UK and Germany in producing highly cited papers by 2013.
However, Sir Richard Roberts, joint winner of the 1993 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine and chief scientific officer of Massachusetts-based bioscience supplier New England Biolabs, noted that the paper “relies on citation data and bibliographic measures of quality”, which he believes is a “very flawed way of judging good quality science”. “In my own field, I see no difference between the quality of science produced in Europe and in the US,” he said.
Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, president of the European Research Council, said the “idea that Europe lags behind the US in terms of research with the highest impact” was one of the major rationales behind the ERC’s formation. “Ten years [on], there is already evidence the ERC is making a difference at this level,” he said. “It is very pleasing to see the results of a [recent] independent report by Clarivate Analytics [acknowledging] the breadth, quality and frontier nature of ERC-funded research. “It also establishes that the gap between the research performance of the US and the EU countries has narrowed…since the ERC was established.” (Fonte: J. Elmes, https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/europe-struggling-to-catch-us-on-high-impact-science 08-07-17)