Spanish university research improves its competitiveness
According to the IUNE Observatory Report, scientific publications produced by universities have risen almost 7% when compared to last year, and the number of European projects has risen by 5%. The UAB stands out in scientific production, impact, training capacity and competitiveness.
According to the IUNE Observatory 2020 Report on universities and their R&D&i activities, published this week, the scientific publications of university lecturers has risen almost 7% in comparison to last year, and a larger competitiveness in obtaining European projects is also observed, with an almost 5% increase, while R&D&i projects offered by Spain fall 1.4% in the last year. These are some of the conclusions reached in the latest edition of the IUNE Observatory Report of the 4 Universities Alliance (A4U), made up of the universities Autònoma de Barcelona, Autónoma de Madrid, Carlos III de Madrid and Pompeu Fabra.
The IUNE Observatory, coordinated by the INAECU Institute (UAM-UC3M), carried out a monitoring of the Spanish University System's (SUE) R&D&i activities through a set of indicators in seven large dimensions: scientific activity, training capacity, competitiveness, funding, innovation, faculty members and recognition.
Publications and productivity
Scientific publications by university lecturers in Spain oublished in the Web of Science (WoS) have grown almost 7% with regards to data from the observatory's previous report edition (2008-2017), and goes from a total of 471,435 to 502,055 documents. In contrast, the number of faculty members has gone from 62,648 in 2009 to 63,782 in 2018, while the yearly number of publications per faculty member has risen from 0.61 to 0.95 documents.
By autonomous regions, Catalonia accumulates a total of 129,063 publications (25.7% of the total Spanish University System, SUE), while the autonomous region of Madrig for the first time reaches 100,000 publications (101,332; a total of 20.18% of the SUE). In third place is Andalusia, with 81,748 publications (16.28%), followed by Valencia, with 66,196 publications (13.18%). The SUE average is located at 33,876, a 7.49% increase when compared to the last report issued by the IUNE (31,513 documents).
Regarding academic disciplines, the ones standing out are Experimental Sciences with a total of 185,201 documents (36.88% of the SUE), followed by Medicine and Pharmacology (139,939, a total of 27.87%), Architecture, Engineering and Computational Sciences (132,022, representing 26.29%), Life Sciences (81,750, a total of 16.28%), Social Sciences (55,362, 11.02%) and Art & Humanities (31,703, 6.31%). "The low percentages in the Social Sciences and Humanities areas partly can be explained by the unequal coverage of the database used (WoS)", the report highlights.
With regard to citations, which is considered an indicator of quality and transcendence of the study, these documents received a total of 8,065,382 citations in the WoS database, which represents an average of 16.06 citations per document, higher to that obtained in the 2008-2017 period, in which it was 14.32 citations per document. This can also be due to the increase in visibility of these publications, since Spanish university researchers are increasingly publishing in first-quartile journals (the most prestigious in each field), going from 51.60% in 2009 to 53.39% in 2018.
Patents and innovation and collaborations with the business sector
With regard to patents, a total of 5,141 patents were issued by the Spanish Patents and Trademark Office (OEPM) in the ten-year period (2009-2018) and to Spanish universities, which represents a rise of 37.61%. As in previous reports, technical universities are the ones to receive the greatest number of patents.
In this period, university funding from consultancies and R&D contracts comes to a total of 2.959 billion euros, which nevertheless is a decrease from data from 2009, with 413.4 million euros, to 189.97 milion euros in 2018.
When the analysis focuses on the funding received through R&D&i tasks provided to businesses, the report shows that this type of income grows particularly in 2016 until reaching 139.99 million euros in 2018, with regard to the 23.87 million euros recieved in 2009. And funding received through licences grew from 2.5 million euros in 2009 to 3.6 in 2018.
National and international R&D&i projects
One of the indicators used to evaluate competitiveness is the participation of Spanish universities in European projects. The total participations in this ten-year period was 3,652, going from 293 projects in 2009 to 427 in 2018, which represents an increase of 45.73% and an average accumulative growth of 4.27% (compared to the 4.75% growth in the previous period).
Woth regard to National Plan projects, a total of 22,764 were detected in that period and a 20.93% fall can be seen in comparison to the previous period, going from 2,766 projects in 2009 to 2,187 in 2018.
With regard to attracting and training talent, the report points to an increase of 4.2% in number of "Juan de la Cierva" contracts, from 187 in 2009 to 251 in 2018, with an average accumulative growth of 3.32%. Nevertheless, "Ramón y Cajal" contracts fell considerably (9.8%), going from 132 in 2009 to 119 in 2018, which means a decrease of 9.84%.
The UAB stands out in scientific production, impact, training capacity and competitiveness
The report highlights the UAB's achievements in scientific production. It is the second university in Spain in number of documents gathered by the Web of Science database (an average of 42,781 documents each year from 2009 to 2018), with an average of 2.75 documents per lecturer. Of all its scientific production, 50.53% are documents published as a result of international collaborations.
In impact, a total of 56.78% of UAB publications can be found in first-quartile journals in the thematic category Journal Citation Reports they are signed up to and 10% are TOP 3 documents (documents published in the three most important journals of each category). Moreover, with regard to number of citations, the UAB receives a large volume of impact, with an average of 897,590 citations annually (11.12% of the total of Spanish universities).
In terms of training capacity, the UAB stands out as one of the universities with the largest number of FPI grants/contracts (344 contracts), as wall as "Juan de la Cierva" contracts (130 contracts yearly).
Finally, with regard to competitiveness, the UAB stands out as one of the top three universities in Spain to be awarded European projects, with an average of 199 projects each year for this ten-year period analysed,.
More information:
The UAB, with Sustainable Development Goals
Partnerships for the goals