The NSB Science & Engineering Indicators 2016 report reveals that authors based in the US were responsible for 18.8% of global scientific output in 2015, while China-based authors accounted for 18.2%. This performance follows over a decade of 'catching-up' by China, which has seen its share of global output increase from 6.4% in 2003. The US’s share, by contrast, has decreased from 26.8% in the same period.
According to the Indicators report, the US is still the global leader in science and engineering enterprises; it remains the largest investor in research and development, awards the most advanced degrees in science and engineering, and produces the most high-impact scientific publications. This position, however, is increasingly challenged by the rapid development of scientific industry and education in Asia.
China, South Korea, and India, in particular, are investing heavily in R&D and in developing a workforce that is skilled in science and engineering, with the South, East, and South-east Asia regions accounting for 40% of global research and development.
The rapid rise of previously developing economies has caused a shift to what the report calls a 'multi-polar world' for science and engineering, where the US, Europe, and Japan are no longer the dominant contributors to scientific progress, which is instead achieved more equally between regions.
China has taken a decisive lead in terms of growth: between 2003 and 2013, China increased its investment in research and development at an average rate of 19.5% per year, and is now responsible for 20% of global R&D. It is second only to the US, which accounts for 27%.
This continuous increase in funding may be a driving force behind China's gains on the US, which has seen government financial support for research and development waver since the Great Recession. The global economic downturn of 2008 resulted in a decline of Federal investment in US research and development, with spending limitations, including the effects of the Budget Control Act, keeping annual R&D growth behind the pace of GDP. In the period between 2008-13, the annual average for US GDP increased by 1.2%, while R&D funding increased by only 0.8%.
The Indicators report also highlights China's progress in science and engineering education. Chinese students earned about 23% of the world's 6 million first university degrees in science and engineering in 2012; and, while the US continues to award the largest number of S&E [Science and Engineering] doctorates, China is the world's top producer of undergraduates with degrees in science and engineering.
The full report is available online at http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/2016/nsb20161/#/report.
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