Tuesday, April 10, 2012

asia: the growing hub of scientific research

asianscientist | The scientific global village has a new member: Asia. The shifting face of science reflects the strides made by Asian nations in recognizing R&D as a valuable industry.
  • Asia-8′s R&D expenditure is second only to the US, surpassing the EU-27
  • One-third of all scientific researchers worldwide are Asian
  • One-quarter of the world’s publications are from Asia
  • China’s scientific publishing output may overtake the US in 2013
The Asian research landscape is dynamic and burgeoning, with its researchers making significant contributions in academic publications, research & development, and high-technology manufacturing and exports.

The emerging Asia-8 economies (China, India, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand) are currently leading this change in status quo, driving a shift from the traditional hubs of research in the US and countries in the EU-27.

Asian R&D Spending Has Risen

An important measure of an industry’s growth, Asian R&D expenditure has grown significantly with China’s spending now US$100 billion of the worldwide total of US$1.1 trillion in 2007.

In figures from the 2010 National Science Foundation Key Science and Engineering Indicators, spending by Asia-8 economies have now reached second place behind the US, surpassing those of the EU-27. Overall, R&D growth in US and Europe has plateaued, averaging 5-6 percent annually over the period 1996–2007, whereas R&D growth rates of Asian economies during the same period often exceeded 10 percent, with Chinese spending growing at 20 percent since 1999.

Reflecting an increase in private spending by domestic and foreign firms as well as public R&D spending, Asia-8 member Singapore has nearly doubled its spending between 1996 and 2007 from 1.37 to 2.61 percent of its GDP. This unprecedented growth is part of the island nation’s policy designed to raise its competitiveness through the development of a knowledge-intensive economy.

One Out Of Three Researchers Are Asian

Other signs of a shift in research can be observed by the distribution of researcher nationalities. Asia now contributes nearly one-third of the 5.8 million researchers worldwide.

The combined number of researchers of South Korea, Taiwan, China, and Singapore rose from 16 percent in 2003, to 31 percent in 2007, driven mostly by China’s rapid growth in R&D. In contrast, the number of US and EU researchers declined from 51 to 49 percent; Japan’s share dropped from 17 to 12 percent.

There has also been a surge in a new generation of researchers from Asia, with 1.5 million students in China alone currently enrolled in postgraduate programs. This number is an increase in 57 percent compared to the previous year, according to the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). In total, China has 31 million students in higher education institutions in 2010, an increase of 35 percent compared to 2005, and almost double compared to 2002.

Publication Output From Asia Is Increasing

Another metric – publishing output – indicates that the world’s scientific hub is slowly shifting east. Between 1995 to 2007, the growth rate in science and engineering article output from mature economies of the US (0.7 percent) and EU (1.9 percent) has plateaued, in contrast to the rapidly developing science base of Asia-8 countries (9.0 percent) and China (16.5 percent).

Although the UK and US together still account for 38 percent of publications in 2004-2008, this figure is down from 45 percent in the previous five years. This is contrasted by Asia-8, China and Japan, which now account for 22 percent of the world’s total academic publication output. Singapore’s output, though small in comparison, has tripled between 1996 and 2008, from 2620 to 8506 papers.

Together, China and Spain have now edged Australia and Switzerland out of the top ten publishers for the last five years.

16 comments:

Big Don said...

Well, one reason is advanced Asian nations don't have the burden of supporting the irresponsible spawn of massive OOW births (see shocking chart below)....

CNu said...

Read up on poverty in China and come back when you've mulled over the big picture http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_in_the_People%27s_Republic_of_China

Big Don said...

Sure China has poverty, CNu, but they don't have a liberal gov't supporting all the less-productive in middle class splendor 
with Section 8-Jing apartments, Rice Stamps and Free Cellfongs.  That leaves more funds for real worthwhile stuff
like science, engineering and research.  The IQ-160's even have luxury cars, flat screens, and ran into one guy 
with his own Cessna 172.

BTW, the USA OOW in the above chart would be more like 25%  (instead of 40%) without a certain egregious component 
contributed by only 12% of the population whose "future time orientation" does not extend beyond its next orgasm.

Unlike the USA, China also does not waste resources on long imprisonments supporting serious criminals (mostly-NAM in USA), 
the latter get a bullet in the head in short order,with the LOOZer'z family paying for the bullet....

CNu said...

lol, well then, that all clearly rules out Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and all the trillions truly wasted on geriatrics with no possible productive uses remaining.

Big Don said...

C'mon CNu, stop all the dis-ingenuity.  We've been thru all this before.  Basic SocSec and Medicare is an insurance policy bought and paid for by payroll deductions while being *productive*, exercising responsibility, good judgement, and staying out of trouble while contributing to society...

brotherbrown said...

The US government attempted to subsidize the solar electric generation industry with a  $3  billion loan guarantee program, but because companies failed,  the Administration faced harsh political criticism, congressional and senate investigations, etc.

Meanwhile, the Chinese government moved to corner the solar electric generation industry with a $40 billion loan program of the Chinese Development Bank.

The "free market" US companies were unable to compete with Chinese companies who operate under a planned economy with a homogenous political structure.

Which system do you think will win the 21st century?

Tom said...

Absolutely.  And it's not only China.   The East Asian countries that have protected their industries best (Japan, Taiwan, Korea) have performed best.  Free market my ass.

Dale Asberry said...

So, I'm not exactly following here, Donnie. Iceland has a 65% OOW rate and they're nearly all Europeans. That's almost 3x the rate of Americans of European or Asian descent. What does OOW have to do with anything?

Dale Asberry said...

CNu, the link to the pdf above is broken. htthttp://...

Dale Asberry said...

No, it's not. It's a Ponzi scheme that requires more people currently working to pay into it than those retiring and collecting from it. You just watch your insurance policy evaporate as you become more and more dependent on those 'unproductive' millenials still living at home.

Big Don said...

The issue was what influences rate of scientific research.  How many ground-breaking cutting-edge developments have come out of Iceland...??  *ZERO*...??  

Iceland recently, in fact, recently went bankrupt, probably in large part from having to support all those bastard kids... 
http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/economicsunbound/archives/2008/10/iceland_goes_ba.html

When the fusion power break through occurs somewhere, it will probably be in Asia...

CNu said...

If I recall the last go-round correctly, you got sent home with a note from your teachers to "try harder". Iceland has the best educated population in the world http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Iceland

Big Don said...

Don't believe everything you read on Wiki.  When Icelanders aren't busy breeding OOW, they are drunk on their collective ass.  It's all solid in the PRR:

Alcoholics Anonymous World Headquarters has compiled AA group membership data in countries around the world. In 1991 (the last year for which data were kept), the western country with the fewest AA groups per capita was Portugal, with 0.6 groups per million population. The highest was Iceland, with almost 800 groups per million. This is a strong indicator of greater perceived alcohol problems in Iceland--even though Portugal consumes 2 1/2 times as much alcohol per capita as Iceland! (Peele, S. "Utilizing Culture and Behaviour in Epidemiological Models of Alcohol Consumption and Consequences for Western Nations ," Alcohol & Alcoholism, 1997, Vol. 32, 51-64 (Table 1).)

Big Don said...

Breeding in-wedlock is all about personal responsibility and well-raised kids with good values.  No guarantees, of course, but the odds are much, much better.  And there is plenty of PRR for that......

Dale Asberry said...

Of course, this is exactly what a little beta male would say and believe so as to keep alpha males from going after his (current/future) woman... and why 20% of all children are fathered by a man (surprisingly mostly from one night stands with alpha males) other than who the woman claims (husband) is the father. THIS is what improves in-wedlock breeding!

Tom said...

I've known a number of guys who specialized in being back-door men.  Smile at the main guy, pretend to be a friend visiting for the weekend, the whole sorry mess.   Only one of these guys was a candidate for whatever "Alpha Male" is supposed to mean.  Most of 'em were scared of their own shadows.  And that one guy is gay now.  Though otherwise  he hasn't really changed much ...

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