China verdoppelt Forschungsausgaben und hängt den Westen ab[en] 

The Global Research Report on China shows the Asian giant published twice as many research papers last year as in 2004. The growth over the past decade is even more dramatic. Chinese scientists published 20,000 papers in 1998 but this figure jumped to 112,000 in 2008. 

China's research centres on the physical sciences and technology, with a particular emphasis on materials science, chemistry and physics, according to the study. Rapid growth in life sciences and agricultural research is forecast over the coming decade. 

Also of note is the increase in collaborative projects. Almost 9% of papers by Chinese scientists included a US collaborator, and cooperation with colleagues in Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Australia were also strong. 

"If China's research growth remains this rapid and substantial, European and North American institutions will want to be part of it," said Jonathan Adams, director of research evaluation at Thomson Reuters. 

"China no longer depends on links to traditional G8 partners to help its knowledge development. When Europe and the USA visit China they can only do so as equal partners," Adams said. 

This new study comes in the wake of the report by an EU taskforce which predicted that China and India would overtake Europe and the US to become world leaders in research by 2025 (EurActiv 25/09/09). 

The rising Asian powers will double their share of global research investment to become major players in international science, according to 'The World in 2025'. 

Scientific bodies in the EU and US announced a major cooperation deal last week which will see collaboration on a range of areas, beginning with nuclear monitoring research. 

Alan Leshner, CEO of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS ), has described China's state-run research sector as one of the largest scientific enterprises in the world. 

Speaking in Brussels last week, he said China has the world's most rapidly expanding R&D output and the number of papers published by Chinese scientists in peer-reviewed journals is rising rapidly (EurActiv 29/10/09). 

However, he noted that the most influential research still comes from the EU and the US, based on these countries' strong record in being most commonly cited by other scientists.