Science & Technology Indicators for Norway 2019
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Science & Technology Indicators for Norway 2019 Main trends and figures 0 © The Research Council of Norway 2019 The Research Council of Norway P.O. Box 567 Lysaker NO-1327 LYSAKER Telephone: +47 22 03 70 00 [email protected] www.forskningsradet.no/en The publication can be ordered online: www.forskningsradet.no/en/about-the-research-council/publications/ Graphic design: Miksmaster Creative Illustrations: NIFU Print: Linkgrafisk Printed in 500 copies Oslo, December 2019 ISBN: 978-82-12-03830-1 (printed version) ISBN: 978-82-12-03831-8 (PDF) www.forskningsradet.no/indikatorrapporten 1 Foreword The world is being digitised, and so is the Report on Science and Technology indicators for Norway (“The Indicator Report”) and the Research Council of Norway. The report continues to offer a collection of indicators, statistics and analysis of the Norwegian research and innovation system. From 2018, the full-length version (in Norwegian) can be found via the following address: https://www.forskningsradet.no/indikatorrapporten/. The digital edition provides the opportunity to access statistics and indicators faster than before, and as soon as new figures are available. It aims to become a living website with continuous publication of updated figures and associated analyses. In addition to the full-length version in Norwegian, this English language shortened version of the report is produced both on paper and online. It is available via the same address as the Norwegian report. The English version contains material that is expected to be of particular interest for an international audience. The Report on Science and Technology indicators for Norway contains key figures and trends, both from an international and national perspective. Furthermore, it highlights the status and development in some selected areas. The theme will vary from year to year. This year’s edition has the UN Sustainability Goals as a special theme. What can we really say about the goals, both in terms of the alignment of R&D and innovation efforts, and the results in terms of goal achievement? Such a theme is important because we need to know if we are successful in this important effort. However, as stated in the report, there is much left to do before the activity is well documented, both in Norway and internationally. The thematic approach helps to shed light on such shortcomings – and opportunities – in the research and innovation statistics. The report is produced as a collaboration between Nordic Institute for Studies in Innovation, Research and Education (NIFU), Statistics Norway and the Research Council of Norway. NIFU has the editorial responsibility, with senior adviser Kaja Wendt and head of research Espen Solberg. Innovation Norway, SIVA and the University of Oslo are also represented on the editorial committee. There is a great deal of work done and the editorial staff and other contributors deserve a big thank you for their efforts! John-Arne Røttingen Chief Executive Research Council of Norway 2 3 Key findings and trends In the past ten years, the world’s expenditure on research and experimental development (R&D) has grown by 50 per cent. Norway has had about the same growth rate. In just over ten years, China’s R&D expenditure has almost tripled. If the trend continues, China will be the world’s largest R&D nation in 2019, both in terms of R&D expenditure and in the number of scientific publications. Preliminary figures show that Norway spent NOK 73 billion on R&D in 2018. It still accounts for more than 2 per cent of GDP, but the growth is lower than in previous years. Business R&D efforts show almost zero growth after several years of strong growth. R&D allocations over the state budget have also levelled off after 2017. Compared with other countries, Norway has a high proportion of highly educated people. But the share of education at master’s degree level is lower than the average in the OECD and the EU, both for the population as a whole and for those aged between 25 and 34 years. In Norway, the number of doctoral candidates has increased sharply in the past 25 years, from about 500 in the mid-1990s to over 1,500 in 2018. The main reasons for the growth are that more women and more foreigners obtain doctorates in Norway. Norwegian researchers published 15,900 articles in 2018. This accounts for 0.65 per cent of world production. Measured by number of published scientific articles in relation to the population, Norway is number four in the world. Switzerland, Denmark and Sweden top the statistics. The number of Norwegian Open Access scientific articles has more than doubled in five years. In 2018, two-thirds of all Norwegian articles were published in open channels. Over 60 per cent of Norwegian enterprises have had innovation activity in the last two years. A higher number of innovative companies is an important reason why Norway is, for the first time, ranked among Europe’s 10 most innovative countries. The degree of innovation in small and medium-sized enterprises is among the areas where Norway has especially high values. New surveys show that innovation is widespread in the public sector as well. In the Scandinavian countries, 70–80 per cent of public entities report that they have had innovation activity in recent years. New technology appears to be a more important driver for innovation in the Norwegian public sector compared with the other Scandinavian countries. The UN sustainability goals are increasingly important in research and innovation policy. However, few of the goals and sub-goals are directly related to R&D and innovation. Like many other OECD countries, Norway is far ahead when it comes to fulfilling the UN sustainability goals in the areas of poverty, health, gender equality, clean energy and social inequality. Norway is farthest away from achieving the goals related to responsible production and consumption and efforts to stop climate change. 4 5 Contents Foreword................................................................................................................................................................. 2 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................ 8 The Norwegian system of education, research and innovation .......................................................................... 9 Key indicators ....................................................................................................................................................... 11 Chapter 1: Norwegian R&D in an international context ............................................................................ 13 R&D expenditure as a share of GDP ...................................................................................................... 15 R&D in the business enterprise sector .................................................................................................. 16 Differences in business enterprise structure ....................................................................................... 17 R&D in the higher education sector ....................................................................................................... 18 Chapter 2: R&D in the Norwegian system ................................................................................................ 19 R&D expenditure in Norway by sector ................................................................................................... 19 R&D expenditure in Norway by funding source .................................................................................... 21 A closer look at Norway’s R&D efforts – what are we researching? ................................................... 22 Chapter 3: Knowledge sharing and collaboration ..................................................................................... 24 Norway’s publication and citation profile by discipline ....................................................................... 25 Highly cited articles – a new indicator? ................................................................................................ 27 Scientific publication by sector and institution .................................................................................... 28 Development in international co-publishing ......................................................................................... 29 International collaboration and citation frequency .............................................................................. 30 Open access publishing development .................................................................................................. 31 Extramural R&D in the industrial sector ................................................................................................ 32 Norway’s participation in Horizon 2020................................................................................................ 33 Chapter 4: Education and skills ............................................................................................................... 35 Weak economic return on education in Norway .................................................................................. 36 Student numbers in Norway .................................................................................................................. 37 The highly educated in working life .....................................................................................................