§ Mr. YeoTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what progress has been made towards the target set in 1998 for the period 1999–2002, to improve the overall international ranking of the science and engineering base in terms of(a) quality, (b) relevance and (c) cost-effectiveness. [83594]
§ Ms Hewitt[holding answer 26 November 2002]: The quality of the science and engineering base is currently measured by the UK's world ranking in terms of citations of published papers. Over the period 542W 1981–2000 the UK received a 9.1 per cent. share of the citations in the international Science Citation Index which placed the UK second overall to the USA.
Relevance is measured by the UK's world ranking in terms of the proportion of Higher Education Institute funding from non-governmental sources. For the latest year (1999), the UK's ranking was first among the G7 countries.
Cost effectiveness is measured by the UK's world ranking in terms of the number of papers published per £1 million of public expenditure on science. In 1990, 1993, 1996 and 2000, the most recent year in which the measurement was made, the UK was the leading country in the G7.