A Global Leader

Germany index A global leader

Germany’s science strengths shown on the world stage. Data analysis by Catherine Cheung Infographic by Bec Crew and Tanner Maxwell

RESEARCH EXPENDITURE RESEARCH OUTPUT BY POPULATION Selected countries’ eiciency of research spending, measured by how much Share they produce for each dollar Germany (population: 83 million) is among the of R&D invested. The UK comes out on top, with a normalized Share of 0.079 for each million US dollars spent. best-performing nations in the world for Share per Germany is in the mid-range of eiciency, with a normalized Share of 0.042 for each million US dollars spent. capita. Switzerland (population: 8.6 million) is world Circles are sized according to each country’s total Share (2015–2018). On the x axis, the US had the highest leader by this measure, with the Swiss Federal Institute annual average R&D spend, while Finland, Norway and Israel were among the lowest in absolute spending terms. of Technology, Zurich its strongest institutional performer.

0.08 United Kingdom Switzerland Spain India Singapore 0.06 Canada

Israel France Iceland

Italy Germany Israel 0.04 United States China Finland Denmark

2015–2018 average 2015–2018 Russia Sweden 0.02 Japan

Share/US$1 million in R&D spending, million in R&D Share/US$1 Norway South Korea United States

United 0 Kingdom 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 Germany Average R&D expenditure in US$ billions, 2015–2018

EUROPEAN SCIENCE POWERHOUSE 0 50 100 150 200 Average Share normalized by For high-quality research output in Europe, which in the Nature Index includes the UK and Switzerland, Germany population, 2015–2019 is the heaviest hitter. It is ranked third in the world after the US and China. From 2015 to 2019, Germany accounted for 24% of total Share in Europe and 7.5% of the total global Share. In the same time period, the 47 countries in Europe in the Nature Index accounted for roughly one-third of the total global Share, its contribution only slightly lower than the United States'. FORWARD THINKERS In 2018, Germany was ranked 5th in the world for its ratio of European patent applications to population, a Total global Share (2015–2019) 301,925 measure of inventiveness. While Germany had 332 patent applications per million inhabitants, Switzerland, which out-performed every other Europe 94,355 United States 101,152 China 49,941 country, had 956. Rest of the world 56,476

Switzerland Germany United Spain 5,852 22,757 Kingdom 18,740 Netherlands All other countries in Europe Denmark 28,601 Sweden

Germany France 11,444 Switzerland 0 250 500 750 1,000 6,961 European patent applications

per million inhabitants OFFICE PATENT INDEX, EUROPEAN NATURE SOURCES:

SCIENCE CITIES The top science cities in Europe are those with RESEARCH Public Higher institutions that collectively published the highest sector education output in the 82 journals tracked by the Nature Index BUDGET 13.5% sector from 2015 to 2019. Germany has two cities in the top The private sector 17.6% 10, Berlin and Munich. While headquarters for two of contributes the vast the country’s most prolific institutions, the Helmholtz majority of funding Association of German Research Centres and Leibniz to Germany’s R&D Association, are located in Berlin, Munich is home to budget. According the headquarters of the Max Planck Society, to the European Germany's total Germany’s leading institution in the Index. Germany's Union’s 2019 R&D R&D spending top-ranked universities, Ludwig Maximilians University Investment in 2018: of Munich and the Technical University of Munich, Scoreboard, 4 of the €104.7 billion are also located in the city. 20 most active R&D (US$123.8 billion) companies in the EU were based in Germany (Volkswagen, Daimler, BMW and Robert Bosch). Private sector 68.9%

7. Oxford, UNITED 2,272.35 KINGDOM 4. Cambridge 2,834.04

5. Berlin 2,539.50

GERMANY

2. London 3,550.51

6. Munich 1. Paris 2,389.34 Paris is the most prolific city in 4,881.77 Europe in the Nature Index. It is home to the publishing might of the 9. Lausanne French National Centre for Scientific 1,485.21 SWITZERLAND Research (CNRS), which has many labs in Paris, as well as elsewhere in France and abroad. FRANCE 3. Zurich 2,898.81

8. Barcelona 1,501.72 SPAIN

10. Madrid 1,411.60 Germany’s biggest international collaborator in the Nature Index is the United States, followed by the UK, France, China and Switzerland. SOURCES: NATURE INDEX, GERMAN FEDERAL MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND RESEARCH, FEDERAL STATISTICAL OFFICE OF GERMANY FEDERAL STATISTICAL RESEARCH, AND OF EDUCATION FEDERAL MINISTRY INDEX, GERMAN NATURE SOURCES: