The UK is doing a good job of maximising the returns from its investment in R&D, according to a major survey commissioned by the Office of Science and Technology (OST).
However, it spends much less on R&D as a proportion of its GDP than competitive countries, at 1.8 per cent compared with an average of 2.25 per cent.
The report showed that, despite the relatively low spend, the UK produces around nine per cent of the world’s PhDs and research papers, and its publications account for 12 per cent of the world’s academic citations.
Professor Julia Goodfellow, speaking for Research Councils UK, which represents the country’s various councils, said the survey results were pleasing, but she warned: “We must make sure that we are not complacent. For example, Germany has more PhD students, and we have to be aware of the obvious rise of China.”
The research councils invest more than £2.5bn a year in research. Of the total R&D spend by the 21 countries OST used as comparators, the UK’s share is 4.5 per cent.
The OST report can be found here.
www.ost.gov.uk