Scotland's scientists out-think rest of world (except Switzerland)

THEIR predecessors made discoveries that helped change the world. From penicillin, the telephone and even the bicycle, Scottish scientists have long been at the forefront of innovation.

Now a new study has concluded that the current crop of Scottish scientists are among the most influential in the world, bettered only by the Swiss.

The survey has found that, in recent papers, Scottish scientists are cited more often than big-hitting scientific nations – the US, Germany and China – relative to their numbers.

Scientists in Scotland are world-leaders in highly specialised areas of research, with the impact of their work coming top for health-related sciences, second in clinical sciences and third in biological sciences.

Among the most mentioned research was breakthroughs in the treatment of neurodevelopment disorder Rett's syndrome by Edinburgh and Glasgow universities, and the development of fuel cells by chemists at St Andrews University.

The report measures the average number of citations per paper over ten years. It looked at the performance of Scottish scientific research against 26 other nations from 1995 to 2005.

It measured factors including the amount of money spent on research, the number of researchers employed, and the number of citations of research papers. Fiona Hyslop, the education and lifelong learning secretary, praised Scotland's long-standing reputation as a world leader in science.

She said: "This report is deserved recognition of a continued commitment to furthering our knowledge and understanding of the world."

"Science is a growth industry and the quality and diversity of our research base means we can take advantage of the many opportunities for research and development in the future, as we strive to build a smarter and wealthier nation."

Professor Anne Glover, the chief scientific officer for Scotland, said scientists could be very proud of their international impact and would inspire young Scots. She added: "The strength of our research base attracts leading scientists from around the world to Scotland.

"This report confirms the quality of science carried out here, and the potential it has to shape Scotland's future.

"Science will underpin our future economic success, helping us to win new investments and opportunities for the people of Scotland."

Research is seen as so crucial to the nation that when rules changed allowing new universities to be created in England without research, the change was rejected north of the Border where university status is dependent on research capacity.

Dr Mark Matfield, scientific co-ordinator of the Scottish-based Association for International Cancer Research, said: "This is a real accolade for Scottish scientists. We have always known that Scotland pulled its weight in the world of science, but this shows it is pulling above its weight."