Over half of Nobel Prize winners are Americans

Six of this year’s ten Nobel Prize laureats
are Americans. Since 1901, the US has produced nearly 50 per
cent of all the winners.

The Nobel Prize is a yearly award
for achievements in physics, chemistry, physiology or
medicine, literature and peace. For decades, the US has
come out on the top in pure sciences while the Europeans
have lagged 

behind.

Two major differences
separate the US and the EU research policy.
First, the US spends more than twice as much on
research 

than EU countries all together.
Second, the US has looked for innovation
in basic sciences whereas Europe has
concentrated its efforts mainly on applied
research.

As part of
the ‘Lisbon goals’, the EU aims, by
2010, to spend three per cent of the
EU’s GDP on research. Equally, a call for the
establishment of a European research council has been
launched. These measures intend to double the EU’s
funding for research and stimulate basic research at
European level.

The Prizes will be presented in Stockholm on 10
December,  the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s
death in 1896.

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