A guide to the index
The Rise and Fall of Beijing’s Research Cluster and Hub of Excellence for Health Sciences and Biotechnology: a Case Study of the Boston metropolitan area
Strengthening collaborations between research institutions and universities is one of the reasons for Beijing’s growth. Beijing’s research cluster consists of two strong collaborations: the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Physics.
The University of Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Physics scored highly when compared to other collaborations in the area of physical sciences. It has a higher bilateral collaboration score (BCS), of 105.82, than the long-established partnership between Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), both located in the Boston metropolitan area (MA) in Massachusetts (BCS 97.04).
The four US cities that make up the top 10 lost ground, recording decreases in their adjusted share over the next six years. The decline in adjusted Share was almost 20% in the Los Angeles metropolitan area.
The regional centre of Guangzhou and Qingdao, known for their water purification and renewable-energy initiatives, increased their outputs with increases of 106.3% and 179.8%, respectively.
Most cities with good universities, smart people, and some industry and capital for research don’t have the alchemy to create gold out of regular materials, according to an adviser at a venture-capital firm. It is necessary to have a concentration of elite scientific research institutions and repetition in order to transform a city into a true hub of excellence for science and innovation. Among such hubs for health sciences and biotechnology, he adds, it’s clear “that Boston has sped ahead of everyone”. There are several probable reasons for this, he continues, including the presence of elite research institutions, start-ups and international companies with headquarters there, and a number of government initiatives over the years that have promoted and supported biotech research.
A large and growing pot of venture capital also fuels health-sciences innovation in Boston. “Because drug development is so expensive, public research funding will never carry all the costs,” says Andrea Braun Střelcová, who studies science policy and research collaboration, with an emphasis on China, at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin. The market’s role is important.
London’s leading research collaboration, between University College London and the University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (BCS 22.81) is almost equal to the New York MA’s Columbia University and New York–Presbyterian Hospital pairing (BCS 22.37).
What do Chinese scientists think about health-sciences research in the United States? A case study of the Healthy China 2030 plan and its science strategy
The culture of entrepreneurship and a mindset of not being afraid to fail are important for any innovation hub to succeed. The hub has to be a place that people want to live in. “There are great research universities that might have some innovation, like the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, but by and large, that’s not a place where people aspire to live because it’s a small town, and small towns are limited, by definition,” Sagan says. Most ambitious entrepreneurs and researchers want to move to places like New York City, Boston or Silicon Valley because they offer good jobs, great schools, and a lot of cultural diversity, as well as being places where their partners can also get good jobs.
There are some puzzling trends for health sciences research in the U.S. Unlike the Boston metropolitan area, which increased its adjusted Share in the Nature Index by 6.6% from 2022 to 2023, the other leading four US cities lost ground. The San Francisco Bay Area experienced the steepest decline of 13.2%.
Scientific advancement in health research is one of the goals of the Healthy China 2030. The country’s 14th five-year plan — which outlines overall objectives for long-term domestic economic development and innovation — also includes health-sciences goals, including specific plans to address China’s ageing population and improve health care. China’s National Health Commission’s science strategy also highlights similar goals, and the government is additionally investing in studying and developing traditional Chinese medicine. The Ministry of Science and Technology is one of the largest funders of research in health-sciences in China, and provides some of the largest grants in the field.
In the year of 2022, construction began on the first of a nationwide network of hospitals that are intended to be a comprehensive national medical centre. There are some Chinese scientists who work in the United States or other Western countries who are being attracted to come back to their home country through a number of talent-recruitment programmes at the national, provincial and city level. Many of the experts who worked at top-tier American universities have left for overseas positions.
Lyu says that collaborative efforts between academia and industry have started booming in China over the past year. China still has issues regarding intellectual property (IP) protections that draw criticism from the United States and the West, Střelcová adds, including concerns over IP theft and economic espionage. On the other hand, she continues, over the past decade or so, China has “improved and professionalized” the IP protection landscape compared with the past, especially through its regulatory framework and enforcement. Stelcov claims that the intent is not only to protect intellectual- property rights, but to also increase the country’s competitiveness. Regardless of the intent, Dong says it is a good thing for innovators because of the large market in China.
The city of New York has maintained its lead despite a decrease in its adjusted Share. It also still contributes 12.6% of the total US Share in the biological sciences. The partnership between Columbia University and New York University has led to a number of advances in neuroscience, cancer and regeneration science. One of the main pillars of New York’s leading institutional network has a bilateral collaboration score of 17.9. Both universities form strong connections with other local institutions such as Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre and Columbia University.
A description of the terminology and methodology used in this supplement, and a guide to the functionality that is available free online at natureindex.com.
Count and Share are used by The Nature Index to track research output. Each article is given a Count of 1 for having at least one author from the country or institution. It is possible for the same article to contribute to the Count of multiple countries/territories even though there is only one author.
Adjusted Share accounts for the small annual variation in the total number of articles in the Nature Index journals. The difference of the total number of articles in a given year versus the number of articles in a base year is arrived at by adjusting Share values for the base year levels.
The bilateral collaboration score (CS) between two institutions A+B is the sum of each of their Shares on the papers to which both have contributed. A bilateral collaboration can be between any two institutions or countries/territories co-authoring at least one article in the journals tracked by the Nature Index.
Each query will return a profile page that lists the country or institution’s recent outputs, from which it is possible to drill down for more information. The journal can be used to display articles. Research outputs can be sorted by subject area. The pages list the institution or country’s/territory’s top collaborators, as well as its relationship with other organizations. Users can track an institution’s performance over the course of a year.
The Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission’s Contribution to the Development of a Sustainable and Sustainable Urban Health System: A Comparison with the Copenhagen and Copenhagen Cities in Health Sciences
For a selection of the most populous conurbations with significant output in the index in the United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, India and Europe, we defined boundaries of metropolitan areas based on official specifications from census bureaus, statistical offices, government offices or as described in legal documents. The specifications typically group adjacent areas that have a high degree of social and economic integration, as measured by commuting ties. When an important institution with strong connections to other institutions in the city was situated just outside the metropolitan area, we adjusted the boundary to encompass that institution.
Copenhagen is one of the fastest rising cities in health sciences, increasing its adjusted Share by 33.9% between 2022 and 2023. For a small country, the health-care sector in Denmark is very large and will provide it with good stead for continued growth.
This approach of sparking economic growth through regional investment can be especially important at times of instability. China invested in infrastructure after the global financial crisis hit in 2008 such as the high-speed rail network. The Chinese leadership sees investing in science and technology as key to the development of a sustainable economy as they try to move away from an economy driven by real estate to one that is sustainable. It has become politically necessary to balance the country’s wealth because of the fact that the coastal provinces have much higher incomes than the interior provinces. China’s leaders are well aware of the political problems that can be caused by regional and class inequality, and by assigning key industries of the future, such as green energy or electric cars, to different cities and provinces, science funding becomes a tool of much broader objectives of social equality and stability and the upskilling of a society.
The financial support of the Beijing Municipal Science & Technology Commission was acknowledged by us. As always, Nature retains sole responsibility for all editorial content.
