Collaboration increases in Europe and USA

A new report, entitled ‘Comparative Benchmarking of European and US Research Collaboration and Researcher Mobility’ that for the first time provides a comprehensive view of the European and US research mobility and collaboration landscapes, has been released by Science Europe and Elsevier.

The report, based on Scopus data, shows that both Europe and the United States have experienced steady growth in their overall collaboration rates since 2003. Inter-country collaboration in Europe also showed an increase, from slightly over 11% in 2003 to 13% of articles in 2011, contrasting with the recently decreasing levels seen in analogous interstate collaboration in the US, at 16% of articles in 2011.

Nick Fowler, managing director of Academic and Government Institutions for Elsevier, said: “Mobility and collaboration are key mechanisms to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of research. The collaboration between Elsevier and Science Europe has generated many new insights about mobility and collaboration trends of European and American researchers. As such, the report provides a helpful basis to further improve the quality of research outcomes.”

While the collaboration patterns between European countries are broadly similar to those between US states, it is clear that institutional migration of researchers between different countries within Europe is considerably less frequent than migration between states in the US. The attitude among funding agencies to allowing their grants to move across borders may be part of the explanation for this, but factors that are more likely to be influential would include differences in culture, language, administrative systems, benefits, pensions and other support systems, which continue to vary considerably across Europe. In contrast to this, there is greater comparability of employment law and compensation packages between states in the US.

Professor Paul Boyle, President of Science Europe, concluded: “These findings allow us to understand the current status of collaboration and mobility of the research communities, and will serve as basis to drive effective policy. The report provides new benchmarks which will be invaluable to reference in the future to assess the impact of research policies within the European Research Area.”