Science and Engineering Indicators 2010
Posted by John Hunter on January 25th, 2010
The National Science Board’s Science and Engineering Indicators 2010 gives a comprehensive picture of the rise of developing nations in Asia, with China as the main engine, and gradual erosion of U.S. leadership. Examples:
North America’s share of world R&D activity between 1996 and 2007 dropped from 40% to 35% and the European Union’s share from 31% to 28%. The Asia-Pacific share increased from 24% to 31% “even with Japan’s comparatively low growth.”
American multinationals are shifting the R&D they conduct overseas from Europe to emerging Asian markets, whose share grew from 5% in 1995 to 14% in 2006.
China’s domestically earned natural science and engineering doctorates have shot up more than tenfold since the early 1990s, approaching the number awarded in the United States.
The share of U.S. engineering doctorates awarded to temporary and permanent visa holders rose from 51% in 1999 to 68% in 2007. Nearly three-fourths of these foreign Ph.D recipients were from East Asia or India.
From 1995 to 2008, the U.S. and E.U.’s combined share of world scholarly articles dropped from 69% to 59%, while Asia’s expanded from 14% to 23%. Over the past 20 years, the number of engineering research articles in the United States has grown by less than 2% annually. China’s engineering article output grew by close to 16% annually.
The share of patents granted to U.S.-based inventions by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is shrinking, from 55% in 1995 to 49% in 2008. In 1997, 34% of high-value patents had U.S. inventors; by 2006, this had slipped to 30%.
Related: NSB Report on Improving Engineering Education – Country H-index Rank for Science Publications – Science and Engineering Indicators – Workforce (2006) – Worldwide Science and Engineering Doctoral Degree Data (2004 report)
Filed under Research, The National Interest | Tags: engineering education, NSF, The National Interest, university