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North America NATURE INDEX GLOBAL North America For many decades, North America has led the world with ARTICLE COUNT (AC): 29,325 the breadth and depth of its science, and its continued FRACTIONAL COUNT (FC): 22,276 dominance is apparent in the Nature Index results. WEIGHTED FRACTIONAL COUNT (WFC): 20,126 orth America is strides ahead of all Researcher efficiency may be a factor in UNITED STATES: SEEKING STABLE GROWTH other regions, including its nearest the relative lack of collaboration with coun- The United States’ WFC in the Nature Index rival North and Western Europe, in tries outside the region, a metric that is lower is 18,643, more than triple that achieved by Nproducing high-quality science. Boasting a than the global average across all subjects. second-place and ascendant challenger China. WFC of more than 20,000 in the Nature Index, The United States is relatively self-sufficient, But maintaining this supremacy might prove its two constituent countries, Canada and the particularly when it comes to papers in either difficult: 2013 budgets for many US research United States, have long enjoyed strong support Nature or Science (see ‘Collaboration rate’). agencies were flat. The prospect of prolonged for natural science, mostly from their research federal funding constraints gravely worries universities. But both are adapting to significant many in the research community. “China, shifts in public funding in recent years. The “CHINA, OF COURSE, of course, is not the only nation ramping United States, comfortably the global leader in up R&D while we rest on our laurels, seem- the index, is weathering funding cuts that have IS NOT THE ONLY ingly attached to the groundless belief that curtailed many research agencies. Canada, NATION RAMPING UP the US is so ahead of other nations that we which comes in seventh globally and has notable can operate on cruise control,” observes strengths in life sciences and earth and environ- R&D WHILE WE REST Mary Woolley, president of advocacy group mental sciences, is attempting to tie its research ON OUR LAURELS.” Research!America in Alexandria, Virginia. more tightly to commercial innovation. The past decade has seen a drop in overall The United States dwarfs its northern neigh- US research and development (R&D) funding bour on nearly every measure, but the index The region shows an above-average con- of about 12% in real terms, say Matt Houri- reveals more nuanced information about how tribution to the life sciences, which accounts han, director of the R&D Budget and Policy it uses its resources. For example, according for nearly half of its output (see ‘Research Program at the American Association for the to UNESCO, there are 1.25 million research- strengths’). For the United States, that focus Advancement of Science. Most of that budget ers employed in the United States, which is has historically been encouraged by fund- decline hit defence-related R&D. “I think we 3,979 per million citizens; Canada has only ing from the government’s medical research will be treading water for at least a few years 157,000 researchers, but this translates to 4,563 agency, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to come,” he adds. The Obama administration per million people — a higher density. The — whose budget, however, is shrinking — in has proposed near-level funding of US$64.7 Nature Index, however, shows that the United real terms, it is now four-fifths of its value a billion for basic and applied research in fiscal States is better able to leverage its researchers, decade ago (National Institutes of Health). Its year 2015, and of US$68.0 billion for develop- producing a WFC of 14.9 per thousand Canadian counterpart, the Canadian Institutes mental research. researchers compared to Canada’s 9.4 (see of Health Research, also has seen its purchas- Life sciences are particularly strong in the ‘Researcher efficiency’). ing power wane in recent years. United States. In 2013, the Nobel Prizes in NORTH AMERICA ANALYSIS United States Canada Countries’ weighted fractional count (WFC) Researcher eciency Research strengths The United States dominates the region and WFC per 1,000 researchers1. Both countries are above the global average for life leads the world. sciences research2. 1,483 16 Chemistry 14 12 P 10 h s y e s i c c n REGIONAL a e l i 8 s 18,643 c c s i e TOTAL: e Eciency n f i c 6 L 20% e 20,26 s 4 40% 2 60% l Ea ta Global rth en 0 and environm Regional 1. Source: UNESCO. 2. Subjects overlap, so the total for each country can be >100%. S60 | NATURE INDEX 2014 | GLOBAL © 2014 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved GLOBAL NATURE INDEX Chemistry and in Physiology or Medicine both went to scientists based either wholly NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH or partly in the United States. In the Nature Index, the country is also most dominant in Realigning for reductions the life sciences, where it accounts for just under half of the global WFC (See ‘Life sci- ence share’). However, 2013 was a troubled year for US research, with federal sequester cuts in March, triggered by the failure of Congress to otherwise lower the budget deficit. These cuts hit science spending, for example slicing off about 5% of the NIH budget. Related tur- moil effectively shut down most of the federal government in October, halting research at many labs. The NIH was forced to send 12,000 scientists home for “16 very, very long days,” says Lawrence Tabak, NIH principal deputy LIBRARY PHOTO CANCER INSTITUTE/SCIENCE NATIONAL director. Uncertainty about a national com- mitment to science “casts a pall on young peo- ple who are considering a career in biomedical research”, he adds. Overall spending has since crept up to around pre-sequester levels, but budget uncertainties continue. Another round of The National Cancer Institute is the NIH’s biggest institute sequester cuts is scheduled for fiscal year 2016 unless federal deficit-reduction targets The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) of the NIH’s work covers clinical trials, and are met, says Hourihan. is the country’s largest civilian research clinical journals are not yet included in the agency, with an annual budget of around Nature Index. CANADA: GETTING DOWN TO BUSINESS US$30 billion. About 10% of the budget Overall, NIH published 35 papers Canada’s WFC of 1,483 belies its relatively goes on intramural research, mostly at its in Nature and 25 in Science in 2013, small population of 35 million (just 2 mil- headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland. together accounting for just over 7% of lion more than Morocco), and the coun- When Science declared cancer its output, with a combined WFC of 28. try “continues to punch above its weight in immunotherapy as its Breakthrough of This places the NIH fifth in the index, just global science,” according to Paul Dufour, an the Year in 2013, one of the two types of under Germany’s Max Planck Society, independent science and technology policy immunotherapy honoured was adoptive which had about €1.53 billion (US$1.97 consultant based in Gatineau, Quebec. Its T-cell therapy, a field in which NIH billion) in public funding that year. strength is “largely a function of the enormous researcher Steven Rosenberg played a “We’re seeing tremendous basic science expenditures since the mid-1990s in higher- pioneering role. That was just one mark opportunities,” says Lawrence Tabak, NIH education research,” he says. Annual spending of excellence for the NIH’s intramural principal deputy director. However, Tabak on natural science and engineering research programme – the tenth largest points out that NIH overall has lost about by academic institutions has more than tri- contributor to high-quality scientific 20% of its purchasing power in the past pled in real terms, from Can$3 billion in 1996. output in the Nature Index by WFC, and decade. Tabak echoes the sentiments of (However, despite the long-term upwards second to Harvard when just the life other observers of US science: “We need to trend, overall federal spending on science sciences are considered. However, much get on a more stable trajectory.” and technology from government, industry United States Canada Collaboration rate Life science share Dividing AC by FC gives a proxy for average number of collaborators per paper Nearly half of all life sciences research in the Nature Index from outside the country. was conducted by US scientists. GLOBAL AVE AGE: 2.2 Others: 3,281 Overall UNITED STATES: Life sciences 8,643 CANADA: 1,483 Earth and LIFE SCIENCES environmental sciences France: 621 WFC: Chemistry China: 1,007 7,302 Physical sciences Japan: 1,019 Nature & Science Germany: 1,087 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 United Kingdom: 1,244 NATURE INDEX 2014 | GLOBAL | S61 © 2014 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved NATURE INDEX GLOBAL and academia has been heading south for 51% of individuals holding science, technol- several years.) ogy, engineering, and mathematics degrees Canada spends about 1.9% of its gross in Canada are immigrants. (That’s about domestic product (GDP) on R&D, a similar twice the percentage of foreign-born college- MJBS/ THINKSTOCK ratio to that of China and considerably less educated scientists and engineers working in than that of the United States at 2.8%, accord- the United States, according to National Sci- ing to estimates by Battelle Memorial Institute. ence Foundation estimates.) R&D spending by industry and by national defence agencies, however, is much lower in THREE NORTH AMERICAN LEADERS Canada than in the other two countries.
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