Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what comparative assessment he has made of Government support for medical research and development in the UK and other major economies.

Every two years, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills commissions an international comparison of the UK research base. The most recent report, “International Comparative Performance of the UK Research Base – 2013”, assesses the performance of the UK compared with seven other research-intensive countries (Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the US). Where data is available, it also makes comparisons with the EU27, OECD member countries’ groups, and three other fast growing nations (Brazil, Russia and India). The report showed that while the UK represents just 0.9% of the global population, it accounts for 3.2% of R&D expenditure, 4.1% of researchers, 6.4% of research articles, 9.5% of research article downloads and 15.9% of the world's most highly-cited articles. Some of the data is broken down by subject area, showing that UK research publications in the fields of health and medical sciences and clinical sciences increased their citation impact between 2008 and 2012, and are well above the world average.