Ch2: growth rates

  • The total number of researchers (according to the Frascati definitions) is taken from the UNESCO database (http://data.uis.unesco.org/) using the Researchers-FTE-total for the World (FTE = full-time equivalent).

ch2fig1

  • This is currently rising at around 4% annually. Note that the World totals do not match the sum of the data reported for individual countries, and it appears that estimates have been used for Africa, Central, South & West Asia, and Arab States, which in sum add an extra 11-13% researchers to the rest of the world. This does not affect the figures too much.
  • The reported number of personnel involved in R&D is consistently about roughly double the number of Researchers reported, suggesting that a similar number of people create new knowledge as develop it for applications and utilisation.
  • USA: growth rate in numbers  http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind10/c3/tt03-a.htm. The growth in academics is shown below:ch2fig6_usaacademicsThe biggest growth has been in non-tenured and tenure-track academic positions, which are not permanent positions. The total increases average 0.9% year, tenure-track 1.3%, non-tenured 1.9%, tenured 0.05%. This is the cause of some angst in the USA since this leads in some areas to half of aspiring academics failing to obtain permanent positions.
    Across all fields in the last 10 years there has been a 1% annual growth in USA academics;  6% in computing, 1.7% life sciences, <1% in everything else.
    See also growth of academics.

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