The biomedical science sector is a rapidly growing sector, and a source of economic growth for the UK, employing 143,000 people and generating over £30 billion in turnover. Encompassing pharmaceuticals, medical technology and medical biotechnology, it is a high-tech and highly innovative sector, closely linked to the research excellence of UK universities.

It is an industry where the UK is objectively one of the world leaders, but our role is not secure. As pharmaceutical companies change their R&D strategies to a new, more outsourced model, and other countries improve their scientific infrastructure, we need to change to keep up. However, there is an opportunity to raise our game by building better connections between the assets we already have.

This report presents new data on the impact of collaborative working, showing that biomedical academic papers that are co-published with industry have greater citation impact than purely academic papers.

 

Author: Louise Marston

Date: March 2011