UK should align its research with emerging economies, says Bhattacharyya

To continue to have a global impact, the UK should gear its research system to match those of emerging economies, Kumar Bhattacharyya, Labour peer and chairman of the University of Warwick’s knowledge transfer organisation the Warwick Manufacturing Group, told the audience at the Research Fortnight event Globalisation: The future of research institutions.

Speaking in London on 9 November, Bhattacharyya said the UK’s research strengths do not match those of the most rapidly expanding research economies. “Britain’s greatest research strengths are in the humanities and the social sciences,” he said. “But on the other side of the ledger, in China, the strongest research subjects are in engineering and physical sciences. India’s strengths lie in physical and environmental sciences, Brazil’s in health and biology and Russia’s in mathematics and physics.”