Scottish Government

1 MAINTAINING AND CONNECTING THE SCIENCE BASE

Introduction

The Science Strategy emphasises the fundamental importance of the science base to the future economic and social well-being of Scotland. The Strategy concludes that Scotland needs to:

• Maintain a strong science base fully connected to UK and international activity and funding sources
• Promote Scotland as a centre of world-leading scientific excellence
• Increase Scotland's outward looking focus on science - and to use these opportunities to collaborate with the best scientists in the world

These values and aspirations continue to underpin our policies set out in the Executive's Framework for Economic Development, A Smart, Successful Scotland and A Smart, Successful Highlands and Islands.

UK and European context since 2001

The main UK development is the publication of the Government's Science and Innovation Framework 2004-2014 ( Case study 2). Of particular relevance to Objective 1 are the Government's initiatives to ensure that the science base is sustainable in future and that research projects are fully funded. Major investigations into the funding of higher education research in the UK have revealed that the sector has been subsidising research, thus placing an ever-increasing and unsustainable burden on its infrastructure. The sector has agreed to institute more comprehensive and transparent systems of accounting and costing of research. It will also ensure that the research it carries out is fully funded, and managed more effectively. The Government has recognised in the last two spending reviews that additional funding will be necessary to help the sector move to a sustainable position. The overall policy of Full Economic Costing of research was implemented in September 2005. A similar policy is planned for other publicly funded research in research institutes. The Scottish Executive, including its agencies and Non-Departmental Public Bodies, announced in 2005 that it will expect to pay for 100% of the Full Economic Costing of the research it commissions for its own policy purposes ⁶.

In the last two spending reviews, substantial additional resources have been provided at a UK level to the Research Councils for the funding of research at 80% of Full Economic Cost in the current year, and at 100% by 2010, and to the Office of Science and Technology for funding of the Science Research Investment Fund. Both of these will benefit Scotland.

Progress on the UK's position as a partner of choice in global science is being monitored. An analysis of the numbers of published research papers and reviews ⁷, and their citations, shows that the UK is second in the world only to the US in terms of measures of both the volume of citations, and the share of the top 1% of cited papers. And in terms of scientific output relative to Government money spent on R&D, the UK tops the league for value for money.

The UK Framework does not attempt to specify a list of national science priorities - or express an aspiration to create one. The UK Government has however introduced some systems and mechanisms to help prioritise funding in some cases. For instance, the Department of Trade and Industry's Technology Strategy, overseen by a business-led Technology Strategy Board, is focusing on the promotion of technology innovation in business. The Government has also established a Horizon Scanning Centre, which together with the Office of Science and Technology's Foresight programme, will help to inform future science and technology priorities for research spending across Government Departments. UK Research Council funding continues to be based on excellence as assessed by peer review, with priorities set by the UK Research Councils themselves. They are increasingly working on cross-Council initiatives - £30 million has been allocated for the Sustainable Energy Programme, and continued support is being provided through standard funding routes for E-Science, Basic Technology, Genomics and Proteomics, Rural Economy and Brain Science. New multidisciplinary priorities supported through cross-Council collaboration will include Systems Biology, Environment and Health, and 21st Century Design.

University top-up fees in England will introduce substantial new funding for the sector, some of which will indirectly benefit research. This may generate a significant additional competitive pressure on Scottish higher education research.

Developments in Europe will also continue to have a significant influence on the UK research environment. The Lisbon European Council set a target to increase investment in research and development by 2010 to 3% of EU Gross Domestic Product. The EU's 7th Framework Programme for collaborative research across member states will run from 2007-13. The Commission has published proposals for a doubling of this budget and the creation of a European Research Council. An overall budget for the EU has recently been agreed but the implications are presently unclear for the Research and Development budget; but it seems unlikely that this will be as generous as the Commission proposed. The Framework Programme funds will be targeted at Health, Biotechnology, Food and Agriculture, Information Society, Nanotechnology, Materials and Production, Energy, Environment, Transport, Socioeconomic Research, Security and Space Research. Work to increase mobility across Europe is also being taken forward under the Bologna Process which aims to create a European Higher Education Area by 2010.

Progress in Scotland since 2001

Activity in Scotland has been taken forward by the Scottish Executive in partnership with a wide range of bodies and stakeholders - the main ones being the higher education sector, the Scottish Agricultural and Biological Research Institutes and the NHS. Bodies such as Scottish Development International and the Royal Society of Edinburgh have been highly active in promoting the excellence of Scottish science abroad, fostering closer collaboration with global players, and developing valuable international networking linkages.

Trends in performance indicators

Overall expenditure on science by the Scottish Executive has increased markedly since 2001, rising by around a quarter in real terms to a forecast of £408 million in 2005-06 (Chart A). The largest component of the Scottish Executive's science funding - around two-thirds of the total - is by the Enterprise, Transport and Lifelong Learning Department and is augmented by expenditure by the Department of Trade and Industry (Chart B).

Chart A
Science Expenditure of Scottish Executive Departments and Agencies 2001-02 to 2005-06 (£m)
(Real Term, base year = 2004-05)

Sources - Office of National Statistics; Scottish Funding Council

Notes:
1. 2004-05 is taken as the reference year in this and subsequent charts where expenditure is expressed in real terms.
2. Figures for 2001-02 to 2003-04 are actual; * figures for 2004-05 to 2005-06 are estimates.
3. Figures for the Enterprise, Transport and Lifelong Learning Department ( ETLLD) include : Total ETLLD (Royal Society of Edinburgh Fellowships; Business Growth & Innovation; ETLLD researchers) + Scottish Funding Council (total research allocation for Natural Science, Medical Science, Engineering & Technology, Social Science, Arts and Humanities, including knowledge transfer) + Scottish Enterprise (technology transfer).
4. 'Others' include : Development Department; Social Research (Justice Department); Central Research Unit; Education Department; Communities Scotland; Historic Scotland; Scottish Environment Protection Agency; Food Standard Agency Scotland.

Chart B
Expenditure on Science in Scotland, 1990-00 to 2005-06 (£m)
(Real Terms, base year = 2004-05)

Sources - Office of National Statistics; Scottish Funding Council; Office of Science and Technology

Notes:
1. Figures for 1999-00 to 2003-04 are actual; *figures for 2004-05 to 2005-06 are estimates.
2. Figures for Scottish Executive are as previously indicated; Figures for DTI include UK Research Councils; University Challenge (1999-00 to 2000-01); Science Enterprise Challenge (1999-00 to 2000-01); Joint Infrastructure Fund - 1999-00 to 2001; Science Research Investment Fund - 2002-03 to 2005-06 (rounds one and two).

Scotland's competitive position in UK terms has remained consistently strong with our higher education sector winning over 11% of the total UK expenditure by the UK Research Councils, compared to 8.6% expected on a per capita basis (Chart C). Similar high percentages are found when considering EU grants, charity and business funded research. (The latter is discussed further in Objective 2). However the percentage of Research Council funding appears to have dipped very slightly in the latest three years to 2003-04 compared with the three years to 2000-01. The reasons for this remain unclear as many factors will affect the distribution of spend, but the dip remains small enough to be due to random effects rather than any systematic trend.

Chart C
Share of UK Research Council Funds Won by Scottish Higher Education Institution, 1998-99 to 2003-04

Sources - Research Councils - Regional Spend Spreadsheet, DTI

Notes:
1. The UK budget includes spend by:- Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council; Economic and Social Research Council; Medical Research Council; Natural Environment Research Council; Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council; Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council.
2. Figures include grants, studentships and institutes.

Scotland's place in Europe on some measures is very favourable. For instance, a recent study by the Commission found that in 2001 Eastern Scotland had the highest Higher Education Research Intensity ( i.e. investment as a proportion of Gross Domestic Product) of any region in Europe ⁸.

Higher Education

In the UK's Research Assessment Exercise in 2001, 50% of Scottish higher education research submitted was rated as internationally competitive, a very significant increase in performance over the previous Research Assessment Exercise in 1996, when the figure was 21% (Chart D). The next round will be in 2008, and so it will not be until then that we can judge whether there has been continued upward shift since 2001, and even then comparisons will be difficult because the assessment will be carried out on a different basis. However, the evidence from other measures, such as external research funding attracted from UK Research Councils, business, charities and EU grants suggests that Scottish higher education institutions have maintained their strong relative position in UK terms since 2001. On these measures, Biological Sciences are the strongest performers, having attracted an average of around 20% of the UK's total external funding between 1997-98 and 2001-02. The latest data for 2003-04 show a similar percentage.

Chart D
Research Assessment Exercises (1996 and 2001): Selected Staff at Scottish Higher Education Institutions by Rating

Notes:
Sources - Higher Education and Research Opportunities in the UK (www.hero.ac.uk/rae)
Ratings of research quality are expressed in terms of a standard scale with common definitions of the points.
5* (five star) - international excellence in more than half of the research activity submitted and attainable levels of national excellence in the remainder; 5 - international excellence in up to half of the research activity submitted and attainable levels of national excellence in virtually all of the remainder; 4 - national excellence in virtually all of the research activity submitted, showing some evidence of international excellence;
3a - national excellence in over two-thirds of the research activity submitted, possibly showing evidence of international excellence; 3b - national excellence in more than half of the research activity submitted; 2 - national excellence in up to half of the research activity submitted; 1 - national excellence in none, or virtually none, of the research activity submitted.

The Research Assessment Exercise 2001 identified many higher education centres of internationally competitive research - for instance life sciences at Dundee; computer science at Edinburgh and petroleum engineering at Heriot-Watt. From a detailed analysis of the Research Assessment Exercise, the Scottish Funding Council has also been able to develop its strategic funding initiatives more effectively. The Scottish Funding Council is working with the other UK Higher Education Funding Councils to ensure that the next Research Assessment Exercise is able to better assess the quality of applied, collaborative, and multidisciplinary research.

Following the excellent Research Assessment Exercise results in 2001, the Executive increased funding significantly to the Scottish Funding Council for university research, in both the 2002 and 2004 Spending Reviews - in real terms this rose by over a quarter to £216 million in 2005-06, compared with £155 million in 2001-02. The Scottish Funding Council has further increased investment to £253 million in 2006-07, a rise of nearly 40% since 2001-02 in real terms, and plans to increase the research budget further to £271 million in 2007-08. Some of this funding will be to maintain competitiveness in UK terms of charity-funded (mainly medical) research which is highly important in Scotland and which requires additional public support under the Full Economic Costing system.

Building on the earlier Joint Infrastructure Fund programme, the Science Research Investment Fund was introduced across the UK in 2002 in recognition of the under-investment in infrastructure in higher education science research during the 1980s and much of the 1990s. Jointly funded in Scotland by the Scottish Funding Council and the Department of Trade and Industry, the third round of the Science Research Investment Fund will provide £103 million from 2006-07 to 2007-08 and represents a major improvement in infrastructure funding for science throughout the UK ( Case study 3).

The higher education sector has, since 2001, continued to win significantly more funding from the UK Research Councils than Scotland's population share. This partly reflects the fact that Scotland's higher education sector is bigger overall per head of population than in the rest of the UK. This increased funding will continue to build the infrastructure from which the higher education sector can compete for funds from the UK Research Councils and other funders. And the increased funding by the UK Government of UK Research Councils in the last spending review will result in an estimated additional £70 million of research funding in Scotland in 2007-08.

Following the Scottish Funding Council's review of research funding in 2001, the various funding streams for research funding have been re-shaped. Their rationale has been set out more strategically to fit the needs of the Scottish higher education sector. Most funding will continue to be allocated by formula, reflecting performance in the last Research Assessment Exercise - under the Scottish Funding Council's Main Quality Research Grant. Chart E shows the marked increase in Main Quality Research Grant in recent years. However, the increased funds are also now being used not only to fund more basic research, but to support promising research in non-research intensive institutions, through the Scottish Funding Council's Research Development Foundation Grant. They are also being used to support projects and collaborations where there is a need for short-term strategic funding through the Council's Strategic Research Development Grant programme ( Case studies 4 and 5). This funding stream, which will build to over £20 million per year, is being allocated to several different types of project that would otherwise not attract much funding from the Research Assessment Exercise:

• joint initiatives with other stakeholders, particularly on areas of public policy including criminal justice and the allied health professions ( Case studies 5 and 6)
• enhancing excellence through joint funding with the UK Research Councils ( Case studies 7 and 28)
• emerging opportunities in strategic plans of higher education institutions through calls for proposals which are awarded on a competitive basis every 18 months or so
• research pooling ( Case study 8)

Research pooling is a unique approach within the UK to developing quality of research and building critical mass in particular higher education subject areas. These areas are relatively good performers in Scottish terms, but activity is spread too thinly across Scotland's higher education institutions for individual institutions to become excellent and to compete effectively with major science departments elsewhere. Some of these areas, particularly in the physical sciences, buttress research activity in other important subject areas and enable cross-disciplinary innovation. The Scottish Funding Council, the Office of Science and Technology and the higher education institutions themselves are partners in developing and supporting these projects. The Scottish Universities Physics Alliance was the first such collaboration to be launched in November 2004. Their aim is to place Scotland at the forefront of research in Physics through an agreed national strategy, an inter-institutional management structure, and co-ordinated promotion and pursuit of excellence. Pooling initiatives in Chemistry (ScotChem) and in Engineering and Mathematics (the Edinburgh Research Partnership) at Edinburgh and Heriot-Watt have also been launched, and several more are currently under consideration ( Case study 8).

Chart E
Main Quality Research Grant 1994-95 to 2005-06 (£m)
(Real Terms, base year = 2004-05)

Source: Scottish Funding Council

Scottish Executive Environment and Rural Affairs Department Main Research Providers

The Scottish Executive's Environment and Rural Affairs Department provides around £60 million per year in direct funding to five research based organisations, the Scottish Agricultural and Biological Research Institutes and the Scottish Agricultural College. It also funds research as part of its sponsorship of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh which is a Non-Departmental Public Body. Its Science and Research Group launched its new strategy in January 2005 in relation to the Main Research Providers. As a result, future funding will be increasingly linked to research relevant to the Department's policy needs and to applied research and knowledge transfer. Climate change, biodiversity and the environmental, social and economic sustainability of rural Scotland have been identified as three cross-cutting themes, which overlay four research programmes through which funding will be allocated.

The Science and Research Group's strategy also recognised that the Main Research Providers are relatively small institutions in a UK or international context and, to maintain sustainability for the future, they need to seek ways of working in larger clusters and to form centres of research excellence in partnerships with higher education institutes. This will be necessary particularly to tackle more complex problems in the biological and environmental sciences that require larger teams and inter-disciplinary approaches ( Case study 9). Further consultancy studies have looked at the issues involved in forming long-term relationships between higher education institutes and the Main Research Providers, and at the development of a funding framework to address sustainability.

The Science and Research Group will support the deepening of relations between Main Research Providers and higher education institutes - such as the Aberdeen Centre for Environmental Sustainability development between Aberdeen University and the Macaulay Land Use Research Institute which may also involve input from NERC scientists. A specific stream of funding will be developed to encourage further such collaborations. The strategy recognises the need for some restructuring and repositioning of the Main Research Providers and, as a result, the Science and Research Group decided in 2005 to cease funding of the Hannah Institute after 2006. The Group has established a Strategic Advisory Panel to advise on its research strategy and policy, and is appointing a Chief Scientific Adviser.

Scottish Executive Health Department research

The Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Executive Health Department spent £49 million in 2004-05 on health-related research in the NHS and academic community. It published a Research Strategy for Health and Healthcare in 2003, which indicated that resources will be focused on the priority areas of cancer, cardio-vascular disease and stroke, mental health and public health. About £6 million of research funding will nonetheless continue to be spent on a broad range of research through the Chief Scientist Office response mode schemes. The Health Department is supporting major UK healthcare research initiatives including the UK Clinical Research Collaboration ( Case study 10); the UK Biobank to study how genes and environment affect health outcomes in later life; a National Translational Cancer Research Network to improve cancer patient's access to new treatments; and within Scotland, a Genetics and Healthcare initiative to improve understanding of how genetics affects ill health in the Scottish population; and lastly an initiative to increase research capacity within the nursing, midwifery and allied health professions ( Case study 6). Much of this work is delivered through or in conjunction with higher education institution research departments. The Chief Scientist Office also works in close collaboration with its UK counterparts and other funders, including the UK Research Councils, on developing a wide range of initiatives.

Research priorities across the Science Base

The Science Strategy committed the Executive to develop a shared understanding with funders of science in Scotland of the priority areas for investment in science. It stated that these would include bioscience and genomics, medical research and e-science. The shared understanding would help to guide and co-ordinate funding from a range of sources, increasing the amount of targeted public expenditure. The Executive formed the Scottish Science Advisory Committee under the auspices of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in order to develop more detailed advice on this issue. The Scottish Science Advisory Committee's first report in January 2004 considered Scotland's research strengths and future opportunities, and provided preliminary advice, listing a number of areas of key strategic importance: biological sciences and biotechnology; medical and veterinary sciences; physical sciences; energy; nanotechnology, information and communication technologies, and environmental science. However, the Committee advised that the task of developing a consensus on a more detailed list of priorities was by no means straightforward. It has more recently been considering some specific areas including e-Health, research and development in industry, and how to develop centres of scientific excellence as a complement to the discipline-based research pooling initiatives in higher education.

In the meantime, the major spenders on science and research in Scotland have aimed to achieve a better targeting of funds, as proposed by the Strategy. The Scottish Funding Council, the Scottish Executive Environment and Rural Affairs Department and the Scottish Executive Health Department have developed their own research strategies since 2001 and sharpened the focus of their spending priorities. Scottish Enterprise has also developed its cluster activity and developed a long term funding stream for three Intermediary Technology Institutes in areas of particular research strength - Energy, Life Sciences and Tech Media, where there are also very good commercial opportunities ( Case study 11). These bodies have consulted widely, so the priority areas identified should resonate well with Scotland's strengths and potential. Highlands and Islands Enterprise has continued to develop its capacity building and infrastructure strategies including major plans for research support for UHI Millennium Institute, renewable energy, and nuclear decommissioning. It is also supporting infrastructure for the Centre for Health Sciences in Inverness, an Inverness Campus for the UHI Millennium Institute and Inverness College, and for Marine Science in North Argyll. This follows significant infrastructure investment at the Scottish Association for Marine Science near Oban, and at the European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney.

Promotion of Scotland as a centre of scientific excellence

Activity under this heading has been widespread and sustained since 2001, as part of the Executive's initiatives to increase Scotland's profile overseas. The opportunity has been taken at every stage to showcase Scotland's science in order to promote collaboration between the research base in companies and universities here with that overseas. This has resulted in partnership agreements between Scottish and overseas companies which support the commercialisation of science and technology, for instance through licensing agreements to develop Scottish innovations. Such links also attract foreign direct investment ( Case studies 11 and 12).

The main developments have been through the Executive's Scotland: A Global Connections Strategy, the activities of Scottish Development International, and the Executive's International Strategy published in 2004. These complement activity at a UK level through the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's science attaché network.

The Global Connections approach set out within the Smart, Successful Scotland strategy seeks to go beyond traditional exporting and inward investment to generate value from a broader range of knowledge flows and modes of investment into and out of Scotland. Scottish Development International is highly active in developing science and innovation-related links. It helps Scottish companies including a high proportion of science and technology companies to internationalise their operations. Scottish Development International organises trade missions and exhibitions - its drug discovery missions to Boston in 2004 and San Francisco in 2005 enabled many Scottish companies and universities to access key decision makers in target companies in the US. Scottish Development International also facilitates inward investment, and has been successful in increasing its focus on attracting High Value Added jobs (mainly in Research, Design and Development).

The Executive has increased funding to the Royal Society of Edinburgh to develop its international work, including links with overseas academies of science, ( e.g. China, Taiwan, Poland, Czech Republic, Norway, Sweden, Slovenia, Cuba and Hungary) and running exchange programmes for researchers. The Royal Society of Edinburgh has since 2003 produced a periodical ScienceScotland which promotes Scottish scientific achievement, and is widely distributed here and abroad.

The Executive's Scottish Proposal Assistance Fund ( SPAF) and Proposal Assistance for Coordination of European Research ( PACER) programmes have incentivised businesses and higher education institutions to attract funding from the EU's Framework Programmes for research collaborations. These schemes help to offset barriers to collaboration due to Scotland's geographical position within the EU.

The Executive continues to develop and strengthen business, research and educational links with countries outside the EU which are strategically important, most notably with the US and China ( Case studies 13 and 14). Transatlantic links are being developed through £6 million funding by Scottish Enterprise for the Edinburgh University-Stanford link. The Scottish Institute for Enterprise has also developed useful links into the UK's Cambridge-Massachusetts Institute of Technology programme. Support for developing countries is increasing. Recently, Dundee University with support from the Executive acquired UNESCO status as a centre of excellence in water law, policy and science, and will help develop water projects in the world's poorest countries. Scottish drug discovery initiatives, such as the Scottish Bioinformatics Research Network may also yield results on tropical diseases such as malaria and African sleeping sickness ( Case study 4).

Attracting talented researchers from across the world is a key purpose under this heading. Objective 3 also refers to activity in this area. The Executive is playing an active role in initiatives to increase mobility within the higher education sector in Europe, known as the Bologna process. The Executive's Fresh Talent Initiative aims to attract highly skilled individuals to Scotland. The Initiative has implemented a range of activities to support this, including the establishment of a Relocation Advisory Service offering a one-stop-shop source of information for anyone looking to move to Scotland. The Fresh Talent: Working in Scotland scheme allows international graduates to remain and work in Scotland after they complete their studies. The Scottish International Scholarship Programme provides 22 scholarships for Masters students in the fields of science and technology and the creative industries.

The Scottish Executive's Scotland In season of promotional activity involved a number of Scottish stakeholders and included a series of events in Sweden in 2002, Catalonia in 2003 and the Netherlands in 2004, to promote Scotland post-devolution as a place to visit, live and work and as a modern knowledge based economy. The programme featured a science and technology strand, and has resulted in a number of highly useful links being made between research groups here and in the Netherlands and Sweden. For example, in Sweden the Royal Society of Edinburgh facilitated a debate, Realising the Potential of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, in partnership with the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. Distinguished leading Scottish and Swedish scientists participated to discuss stem cell research and the important ethical, policy, and regulatory issues that need to be addressed to realise the full potential of this field. There have been a number of important follow up activities including a stem cells meeting in Brussels in October 2003, organised by the Royal Society of Edinburgh in partnership with the Scottish Stem Cell Network and Scotland Europa and attended by representatives of the European Commission, Parliament and Council. A seminar on Radiotherapy Demand and Planning for the Future, organised in collaboration with colleagues in the Netherlands, was held in Edinburgh in December 2004 with attendance from other UK and European countries. This meeting enabled an exchange of information and views which helped to inform the work of the Radiotherapy Activity Planning Group and their review of radiotherapy services in Scotland.

In November 2005, Universities Scotland held a conference "On the World Stage" attended by the First Minister. This event, promoting the international role of Scottish higher education institutions, was very well received.

More progress needed

As already noted, on the basis of the advice received so far, the Executive has not been able to formulate a list of overall science funding priorities for Scotland to the extent envisaged in the Strategy. The Scottish Science Advisory Committee provided preliminary advice but has noted the difficulties in trying to achieve a wide consensus. At a UK level, several mechanisms for scientific horizon scanning are being further developed which Scotland will need to tap into. However, it remains debatable whether the task of developing an overall list of science priorities for Scotland is achievable; what this would mean in terms of co-ordinating spending; how such a list would be refreshed; and how it would link into priorities at a UK and an EU level. The alternative would be to continue to let markets, funding bodies and individuals decide for themselves where the best opportunities lie. This suggests that future effort should instead focus on encouraging stakeholders to work in partnership when developing strategic investments, thus ensuring optimum connectivity. Further debate is needed on how to encourage this.

The Scottish Science Advisory Committee's main report Science Matters identified the need for reshaping and optimisation of the science base, promoting cross-sector collaborations and encouraging high-risk, high-reward activities. The report also called for new integrated structures that would lead where appropriate to the creation of Scottish centres of scientific excellence. Across modern economies this term is used widely, and perhaps too freely, to add profile to areas of specialism within a country. There is no consensus about what defines such centres, or how they should be developed. Research pooling provides one example of creating clearly recognisable networks of excellence, but further progress is needed - the development of the Edinburgh Bioscience Research Centre ( Case study 9) is a promising example of how centres of excellence might be achieved. The Scottish Science Advisory Committee is continuing to consider this issue, especially in terms of interdisciplinary centres, to complement the disciplinary-based pooling initiatives.

There has been a marked growth in activity in promoting Scotland's science abroad since 2001. Much of this has helped to raise Scotland's profile in this area and has generated new contacts and collaborations. This work ultimately aims to contribute to outcomes such as the world-class citation levels of Scottish sources in international journals, and the higher proportion of research and development inward investment projects won by Scotland compared to UK and European competitors. Although it is inherently difficult to measure the overall impact of some activities, the Executive is developing approaches to evaluate its overall international work which will be used to help inform future decisions on the benefits of further expansion of activity in this area.

Ongoing commitments

Over the longer term we will:

• Maintain excellence in the Scottish science and research base and ensure that it remains globally competitive
• Continue to promote Scotland as a "science nation": a world-class location for science and research and development, with productive international education and research links in both existing and new markets
• Continue to develop our ability to identify new areas of scientific opportunity of strategic importance to Scotland's economy and society
• Develop strategic investment in research, particularly to generate beneficial collaborations across the science base in Scotland and with overseas partners; in emerging areas where Scottish science has the potential to be world leading; and to inform policy making where scientific evidence can play a significant role

In the short to medium term we will:

• Encourage further research pooling, strategic research funding initiatives and collaborations across the science base which build Scotland's research reputation
• Promote innovation, science and research links with important economies particularly in the Far East, the USA and Germany, and if feasible, to develop measures of international research collaboration in order to track progress
• Support Full Economic Costing of research through the Executive, its agencies and Non Departmental Public Bodies
• Further develop mechanisms to attract and retain world class researchers