South Asia: Challenges and benefits of research collaboration in a diverse region South Asia: Challenges and benefits of research collaboration in a diverse region A report by the World Bank and Elsevier This report is the product of a collaboration between the staff of Elsevier and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/The World Bank. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this volume do not necessarily reflect the views of the Executive Directors of The World Bank or the governments they represent. The boundaries, colors, denominations, and other information shown on any map in this work do not imply any judgment on the part of The World Bank or Elsevier of the legal status of any territory or the endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries. The World Bank wishes to acknowledge the following contributors: Francisco Marmolejo (Lead Education Specialist) Yoko Nagashima (Sr. Education Specialist) Sean Lothrop (Editor) Sandra Alborta (Program Assistant) under the guidance of Cristian Aedo (Practice Manager, Education Global Practice, South Asia Region), Keiko Miwa (Director, Education Global Practice) The team is grateful for the advice from peer reviewers Roberta Malee Bassett (Sr. Education Specialist, Global Lead for Tertiary Education), Harsha Aturupane (Lead Economist), and Andreas Blom (Lead Economist). Elsevier wishes to acknowledge the following contributors: Maria de Kleijn (Senior Vice President Analytical Services) Sarah Huggett (Head of Analytical Services Asia-Pacific) Basak Candemir (Head of Analytical Services Europe & Emergia) Eleonora Palmaro (Product Manager Funding Solutions) Noelle Gracy (Head of Collaboration Office) Josine Stallinga (Director of Business Development for Research Management) Project coordination was done by Development Finance International, copy-editing by Content Strategy Media, and design by Rise Branding. This report was prepared as part of the background analysis supporting the South Asia companion to the World Development Report published by the World Bank. Contents Executive summary 4 Introduction 5 Key findings and policy recommendations 6 The South Asia region 10 Knowledge production and economic development 11 in South Asia Chapter 1 South Asia: a diverse region 12 1.1 Dimensions of diversity: economic, fiscal, 14 and demographic 1.2 South Asia’s scholarly impact in comparative 22 perspective 1.3 Focus areas of South Asian research 24 Chapter 2 Challenges and benefits 28 of research collaboration 2.1 International collaboration in South Asia 30 2.2 South Asia’s position in the international 32 collaboration network 2.3 Characteristics of collaboration types 36 Chapter 3 Knowledge transfer between the 40 public and private sectors 3.1 Knowledge transfer between sectors 42 Conclusions and 46 recommendations Annex The drive for excellence: 48 enhancing the quality of research in South Asia Cross-border internationalization in South Asia 49 Competitive funding mechanisms for 50 research collaboration 3 Executive summary 4 South Asia: Challenges and benefits of research collaboration in a diverse region Introduction Collaboration is vital to scientific innovation, as it facilitates the exchange of ideas Discussion points: and expands the range of perspectives on a given subject.1 South Asian economies and societies are rapidly evolving, and knowledge production, innovation, and 1. What factors significantly technological adaptation are becoming increasingly vital to the sustained growth influence research output and competitiveness of firms and sectors across the region. South Asia’s regional in South Asia? economy may still depend on low-skilled, labor-intensive production, but high-tech, knowledge-intensive industrial and service sectors are also emerging. Meanwhile, 2. How could greater developing countries worldwide compete for shares of the global production, intraregional scholarly technology, and value chains. collaboration be encouraged? Scholarly research is at the leading edge of national efforts to sharpen competitive 3. How can extra-regional advantages and explore emerging fields and sectors,2 but exploiting the benefits of scholarly collaboration new technologies requires an enabling environment for innovation and adaptation maximize its local impact? to be created, which in turn demands research and development (R&D) capacity that may exceed the domestic resources of developing countries. The extent to 4. What role can development which developing countries succeed in supporting technological innovation partners, including the World has critical implications for employment and income dynamics, as “the Bank, play in supporting pace of innovation will determine whether new sectors or tasks emerge to these initiatives? counterbalance the decline of old sectors and routine jobs as technology costs decline.” 3 In this context, international scholarly collaboration can greatly benefit countries with lower levels of gross domestic product (GDP) and gross expenditure on research and development (GERD), by enabling them to leverage and complement the resources of countries with more developed research bases. International research collaboration is increasingly common worldwide, as reflected in the rising number of collaborative publications involving authors from multiple countries. Analyzing trends in the co-authorship of scholarly publications can shed light on the volume and focus of research collaboration, facilitating comparisons between countries and regions. This report measures scholarly output between 2012 and 2016 in terms of the total number of peer-reviewed scholarly publications (including research papers, systematic reviews, and conference proceedings) compiled in the Scopus® 4 database. Scholarly output for each country is defined as the number of published papers with at least one author from that country. Papers produced through international collaboration count toward the total output of each country, as well as the output of the region as a whole. 1. de Beaver, 2013. The Many Faces of Collaboration and Teamwork in Scientific Research: Updated Reflections on Scientific Collaboration, COLLNET Journal of Scientometrics and Information Management, 7:1, 45-54, DOI: 10.1080/09737766.2013.802629 2. World Bank, 2019, World Development Report: The Changing Nature of Work. Washington, DC: The World Bank. p.2. 3. Ibid. p.12 4. Scopus® is the world’s largest curated abstract and citation database of peer reviewed literature, comprising| 71 million documents from more than 23,700 active journals, book series, and conference-proceeding papers, published by 5,000 publishers. Executive summary 5 Key findings 1 and policy South Asia is a diverse region, encompassing countries of vastly different sizes and development levels, and with widely varying degrees of scholarly output and citation recommendations impact. The eight countries that comprise the South Asia region collectively published just under 700,000 works of scholarship between 2012 and 2016, representing 5.3 Presented here are key findings about percent of the world’s scholarly output during the period. South Asia's research input, output, and impact. India alone accounted for 88 percent of South Asia's scholarly publications, strongly influencing aggregated indicators for the region. . % of the world’s scholarly output South Asia output % globaly India alone accounts for: % of South Asia’s scholarly output India output % in South Asia India drives South Asia’s current research focus on engineering and technology and joins Bhutan and the Maldives in devoting significant attention to the natural sciences. The agricultural sciences are a core focus of all South Asian countries, with the exception of India. The region’s citation impact is closest to the world average in the fields of engineering and technology. 6 South Asia: Challenges and benefits of research collaboration in a diverse region 2 4 Although modest by global standards, South Asia’s scholarly Just under 20 percent of South Asian publications are output is growing rapidly. Between 2012 and 2016, South attributed to international collaboration, and India’s Asia’s share in global scholarly output rose by 8 percent relatively low rate of international collaboration reduces annually, reflecting a broad increase in publications among the regional average. Among South Asian countries, South Asian countries. In India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, the level of research output appears to be inversely and the South Asia region as a whole, the number of correlated with the frequency of international collaboration, scholarly publications relative to GDP exceeds the global as countries with the smallest research bases are the most average. Pakistan and Sri Lanka have especially high levels likely to leverage international networks. In all South Asian of scholarly output relative to their gross investment in countries, most international collaborations include at research and development, while India, Sri Lanka, and least one researcher outside the region. The proportion of the South Asia region publish more papers per researcher papers produced through purely intraregional collaboration than the world average. These findings suggest that South is very low, ranging from 0.15 percent in both India and Asian research generates an unusually high return on the region as a whole, to 5-10 percent in Nepal, Afghanistan, investment and that South Asian researchers are especially Bhutan, and the Maldives. productive. However, the data do not account for the impact of international research collaboration, which enables The proportion of papers resulting from South Asian countries to leverage additional financial and international collaboration within South Asia ranges human resources. Furthermore, all South Asian countries From . % have relatively low levels of scholarly output relative to their . % population size. for India and for South Asia as a whole 3 To While the overall citation impact of South Asian research % for countries like Nepal, Afghanistan, % Bhutan, and the Maldives. is below the global average, the citation impact of research produced in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Afghanistan, Bhutan, and the Maldives exceeds the global average. Papers produced through extra-regional collaboration These countries magnify the impact of their limited tend to have a much greater citation impact than those research bases by participating in large-scale collaborative produced through purely intraregional collaboration, projects, such as hyper-collaborated physics papers and but the latter may be more effective in addressing local internationally relevant medical research, including clinical challenges. The difference in citation impact is smaller guidelines, World Health Organization studies, and for the agricultural sciences, the natural sciences, and the publications resulting from the Global Burden of Disease social sciences than for other subject areas, highlighting program. With the exceptions of India and Pakistan, most the strong regional relevance of these fields to South Asia’s South Asian countries depend heavily on international development challenges. collaborations, which are the basis for at least 50 percent of their publications. Most of these collaborations involve institutions outside of South Asia, and intraregional collaboration is relatively rare. Executive summary 7 5 6 South Asia lacks a unified collaboration framework, Collaborations between academic institutions and the with each country using different, independent systems private sector account for just 1.3 percent of South Asia’s to establish academic and scientific partnerships. scholarly output, roughly half the global average. Consequently, South Asian countries are scattered across the global international collaboration network. Within South Asia, India and Pakistan have the strongest collaborative ties, and these two countries form the nexus . % of intraregional collaboration. Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka also regularly engage with India and/or Pakistan, while Afghanistan, Bhutan, and the Maldives are on the fringe of the regional network. Examining intraregional Across South Asian countries and their global comparators, collaboration as a share of each country pair's collaborative academic-corporate collaborations tend to have a high research reveals that Pakistan has especially strong research citation impact, which is enhanced through large-scale collaboration ties with Bangladesh and Sri Lanka; Nepal collaborations such as the Global Burden of Disease has strong ties with Bangladesh and Sri Lanka; and Bhutan studies. Relative to its scholarly output, South Asia tends has strong ties with the Maldives. to have fewer patent citations than the world average, a trend which is also consistent with comparator countries outside the region. While this may be partly attributed to the coverage of the World Intellectual Property Organization database, it could also indicate an opportunity to enhance knowledge transfer and promote the dissemination of technologies through greater academic- corporate collaboration. Overcoming two key challenges linked to funding could greatly expand research collaboration in South Asia. The first challenge is to secure adequate funding, as few resources are specifically dedicated to supporting international scholarly collaboration, especially within the South Asia region. Increasing national investment in research and development could encourage greater domestic, intraregional, and extra-regional collaboration while also broadening collaborative efforts to encompass a more diverse range of researchers and institutions. The second challenge is to enhance the quality of research collaboration by developing competitive funding mechanisms, with the aim of strengthening peer review processes and building the capacity of regional scholars to draft high quality research proposals. 8 South Asia: Challenges and benefits of research collaboration in a diverse region Policy Recommendations • Increase intraregional collaboration to encourage South It is recognized that South Asian countries need to effectively leverage their research sectors in order to tackle critical Asian countries to focus their research on common development priorities, contribute to economic productivity, priorities, in areas such as agriculture and public health. and increase their competitiveness. The following measures South Asian countries face unique challenges that are not have been identified to address this: necessarily shared by countries elsewhere in the world, therefore intraregional collaboration provides a forum to • Increase the quantity and improve the quality of address regional priorities. tertiary education, with a focus on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics; South Asian countries need to • Develop criteria to determine priority research areas at effectively leverage their research national level; sectors in order to tackle critical • Establish financial and administrative incentives to boost development priorities, contribute the production of high quality research in priority areas, to economic productivity, which could be measured by number of publications, their citation impact, and number of patents applications; and increase their competitiveness. • Build the capacity of researchers to develop high quality • Encourage national governments, as well as regional proposals, expand competitive-funding mechanisms, higher education and research associations, to and raise the standards of peer review processes; and develop programs and funding schemes specifically designed to stimulate intraregional collaboration. • Strengthen the ties between academic institutions These include scholarships and postdoctoral fellowship and the private sector by funding academic-corporate programs focused on academic exchange and grants collaborations to improve the market relevance of for projects that address region-wide challenges. research and enhance its contribution to economic Greater intraregional collaboration has the potential to productivity and competitiveness. alleviate capacity constraints among national tertiary education institutions, encourage the exchange of It is also acknowledged that targeted reforms could greatly knowledge across borders, and expand the academic increase the benefits of research collaboration in South Asia. and professional development opportunities available to The following opportunities have been identified: South Asian students and researchers. • Expand the network of intra and extra-regional • Build the capacity of patent offices, establish Technology collaboration to generate substantial gains across South Transfer Offices (TTOs) in academic institutions, and Asia. Increasing this extra-regional collaboration network provide training in intellectual property literacy to could enable South Asian countries to maximize the value encourage academic institutions to produce more of their relatively modest research bases and augment market-relevant research. Connecting scholars with limited domestic resources. This is particularly relevant private firms and entrepreneurs and providing legal for research collaborations supported by multilateral advice on registering patents could significantly increase financial institutions, promoting extra-regional and the economic impact of regional research. Many South intraregional initiatives. Asian countries lack a strong legal framework for safeguarding intellectual property rights and reforms that ensure researchers can directly profit from their innovations could provide a powerful incentive to pursue marketable research. Increased intraregional collaboration could also leverage synergies between national research sectors and accelerate intraregional technology transfer. Executive summary 9 The South Asia region The vast South Asia region stretches from the Persian Gulf Intraregional knowledge transfer is a process of social to the Bay of Bengal, and from the Himalayas to the Indian communication. Its success is influenced by the Ocean. It encompasses Afghanistan, Bhutan, India, the effectiveness of national and institutional cooperation Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. In 1985, these strategies, and the willingness of individual researchers countries formed the South Asian Association for Regional to engage in collaboration.5 South Asia is a complex Cooperation (SAARC) and collectively, they represent 3.8 geopolitical environment with multifaceted social percent of the global economy. and cultural characteristics, which creates barriers to collaboration at national, institutional, and individual level. Despite wide variations in their economic, demographic, In this challenging context, regional and international and cultural characteristics, the SAARC member countries stakeholders must develop effective strategies to galvanize share the common objectives outlined in the SAARC Charter: support for the joint production of scholarly work with region-wide relevance. i to promote social welfare and cultural understanding. ii to accelerate economic growth through intraregional At a national level, promoting educational equality can boost cooperation. scholarly output and foster collaboration. Gender disparities play a particularly significant role in driving educational Knowledge transfer, as well as technical and scientific inequality in the region and have been shown to negatively assistance, are identified as key tools for advancing impact scholarly output.6 To maximize scholarly output regional development. However, research collaboration and enhance its global impact, increased interregional within the South Asia region remains limited across collaboration must be accompanied by the diversification of countries and disciplines. scholar networks in each country. Greater public investment in research and development could catalyze this process, while highlighting the regional benefits of increased scholarly output and cross-country collaboration.7 5. Haque et al., 2015. Factors affecting knowledge sharing on innovation in the higher education institutions (HEIs). Asian Research Publishing Network (ARPN). VOL. 10, NO. 23. Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Department of Information Systems, Kulliyyah of Information and Communication Technology, International Islamic University Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur 6. Thomas et al., 2001. Measuring education inequality - Gini coefficients of education (English). Policy, Research working paper; no. WPS 2525. Washington, DC: World Bank. http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/ en/361761468761690314/Measuring-education-inequality-Gini-coefficients-of-education 7. Jamjoom et al., 2016. Impact of country-specific characteristics on scientific productivity in clinical neurology research. eNeurologicalSci . Vol 4 (1-3). https://www.ens-journal.com/article/S2405-6502(16)30013-2/fulltext 10 South Asia: Challenges and benefits of research collaboration in a diverse region Knowledge production and economic development in South Asia South Asian economies are rapidly evolving, and knowledge Knowledge transfer in a diverse region can help broaden the production, innovation, and technological adaptation scope of research and increase the amount of information are becoming increasingly vital to the sustained growth produced in each subject area.10 However, successful and competitiveness of firms and sectors across the knowledge transfer requires active collaboration between region. While much of South Asia’s regional economy countries and institutions, and between academia and remains focused on low-skilled, labor-intensive production the private sector.11 Investments in collaborative research models—especially in agriculture and manufacturing—an can stimulate innovation, reduce income inequality,12 and ongoing process of structural transformation is driving the improve labor market outcomes.13 Intraregional academic emergence of high-tech, knowledge-intensive industrial and and scientific collaboration can also ease political tensions service sectors. Meanwhile, the globalization of production between South Asian countries, as well as encourage patterns and the diffusion of technologies across borders economic cooperation and cultural exchange. Collaborative intensifies competition among developing countries scholarly output is vital in diverse regions, because it worldwide, as they strive to capture increasingly advanced allows countries to jointly address common challenges segments of international value chains. such as natural disasters, high levels of income inequality, inadequate access to healthcare and sanitation, and low The World Bank’s 2019 World Development Report: education quality. The Changing Nature of Work, emphasizes the pivotal role of technological innovation in creating high-quality Knowledge is produced by innovative research, and citation employment, facilitating diversification, and boosting output impact measures the global reach of a research publication. at individual, firm, and national level. The report observes Because relevant, applicable research is shared and referred that “technology provides opportunities to create new jobs, to by other researchers in subsequent publications, the more increase productivity, and deliver effective public services. frequently a publication is cited, the greater its impact on Through innovation, technology generates new sectors the production of knowledge. Because South Asian countries and new tasks.” 8 However, for new technologies to thrive vary in population and economic size, it is challenging to and their benefits to spread, innovation and adaptation directly compare their scholarly output and impact. The necessitate sufficient research and development efforts. Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) indicator can control For developing countries, these requirements may exceed for differences in citation activity by subject area, document resources and capabilities. The extent to which developing type, and publication year. Given the huge variations in countries succeed in creating an enabling environment economic size between South Asian countries and their for technological innovation has critical implications diverse policy priorities, normalizing publication data by for employment and income dynamics, as “the pace of GDP and GERD can facilitate cross-country comparisons. innovation will determine whether new sectors or tasks Normalizations by population size and number of emerge to counterbalance the decline of old sectors and researchers also make it possible to comparatively examine routine jobs as technology costs decline.” 9 countries with varying population and research workforce. 8. World Bank, 2019. World Development Report: The Changing Nature of Work. Washington, DC: The World Bank. p.2. 9. Ibid. p.12 10. de Beaver, 2013. The Many Faces of Collaboration and Teamwork in Scientific Research: Updated Reflections on Scientific Collaboration, COLLNET Journal of Scientometrics and Information Management, 7:1, 45-54, DOI: 10.1080/09737766.2013.802629 11. Parker, 1992. Industry - university collaboration in developed and developing countries (English). Population and Human Resources Department. Education and Employment Division background paper series; no. PHREE 92/64. Washington, D.C.: The World Bank. http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/675261468740666204/ Industry-university-collaboration-in-developed-and-developing-countries 12. World Bank and Elsevier, 2014. A decade of development in sub-Saharan African science, technology, engineering and mathematics research (English). Washington, DC: World Bank Group and Elsevier. http://documents.worldbank. org/curated/en/237371468204551128/A-decade-of-development-in-sub-Saharan-African-science-technology- engineering-and-mathematics-research; https://www.elsevier.com/research-intelligence/research-initiatives/ world-bank-2014 13. Global Economic Prospects, 2018. “Special Focus 2: Education Prospects and Global Inequality.” The World Bank Group. http://pubdocs.worldbank.org/en/703271512412244412/Global-Economic-Prospects-Jan-2018-Topical-Issue- education-demographics.pdf Executive summary 11 South Asia: Challenges and benefits of research collaboration in a diverse region Chapter 1 South Asia: a diverse region 13 1.1 Dimensions of diversity: economic, fiscal, and demographic South Asia is a highly diverse region. Its eight countries— Investing in research and development, breaking down Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, barriers to inclusion, and promoting a culture of regional the Maldives, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka—vary enormously and international collaboration can enable South Asian in terms of their population size, economic output, countries to increase their scholarly output, enhancing their geographic features, natural resources, cultural contribution to national development objectives. characteristics, and development priorities.14 These factors, along with national education and research policies, This report examines the scholarly output of South Asian influence the amount of scholarly output produced by each countries at national and regional levels. The analysis country and its global impact.15 evaluates national policies, examines regional trends, and benchmarks the research performance of South South Asia’s complexity, diversity, and deep social cleavages Asian countries against global comparators such as are also present within individual countries. A 2015 World Brazil, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam Bank report, Addressing Inequality in South Asia,16 explains (Figure 1). In this report, scholarly output refers to the that while traditional economic indicators suggest that number of scholarly publications produced by a country and inequality in South Asia is relatively modest, a deeper indexed in Scopus®, including work by domestic academics analysis reveals vast disparities in opportunity by gender, as well as international collaborations. location, and caste. Reducing inequality of opportunity at country level can improve research performance both directly, by engaging a broader range of talented researchers, and indirectly, by encouraging economic participation and accelerated growth.17 Reducing inequality of opportunity at country level can improve research performance both directly, by engaging a broader range of talented researchers, and indirectly, by encouraging economic participation and accelerated growth. 14. World Bank, 2017. South Asia Economic Focus, Fall 2017: Growth Out of the Blue. Washington, DC: World Bank. © World Bank. https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/28397 SAARC, 2011, SAARC Statistical Yearbook, http://www.saarcstat.org/sites/default/files/publications/SAARC%20YEAR%20BOOK%202011.pdf 15. Thomas, et al., 2001. Measuring education inequality - Gini coefficients of education (English). Policy, Research working paper; no. WPS 2525. Washington, DC: World Bank. http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/ en/361761468761690314/Measuring-education-inequality-Gini-coefficients-of-education 16. Rama et al., 2015. Addressing Inequality in South Asia. South Asia Development Forum. World Bank Group, Washington, DC. © World Bank. https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/20395 17. Global Economic Prospects, 2018. Special Focus 2: Education prospects and Global Inequality. The World Bank Group. http://pubdocs.worldbank.org/en/703271512412244412/Global-Economic-Prospects-Jan-2018-Topical- Issue-education-demographics.pdf 14 South Asia: Challenges and benefits of research collaboration in a diverse region Between 2012 and 2016, South Asia published 679,571 papers, accounting for 5.3 percent of the world’s scholarly output and increasing the region’s share of global scholarly output by 1.7 percent. The diversity of South Asian countries in terms of their economic size and research policies results in large variations in their respective level of scholarly output. For example, researchers based in India produced almost 600,000 papers between 2012 and 2016, while researchers in the Maldives produced less than 100. To generate useful cross-country comparisons, the analysis presented in Figure 2 normalizes scholarly output by economic size (as measured by GDP) and investment in research (as measured by GERD). The analysis also controls for other relevant factors, such as population size and the number of researchers in each country in Figure 4. Scopus®— a comprehensive source of bibliometrics data Scopus is the world’s largest curated abstract and citation database of peer reviewed literature, comprising over 71 million documents from more than 23,700 active journals, book series, and conference-proceeding papers by over 5,000 publishers. The Scopus database is multilingual and its coverage is global; approximately 46 percent of Scopus titles are either published in languages other than English, or published in both English and another language. In addition, more than half of Scopus content originates outside North America, and many of its publications come from Europe, Latin America, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific region. Scopus encompasses all major research fields, with 12,569 titles in the physical sciences, 14,001 in the health sciences, 6,960 in the life sciences, and 11,211 in the social sciences. Most titles are serial publications, such as academic and trade journals, book series, and conference materials. However, the database also includes standalone books and proceedings volumes that consolidate a large number of conference papers: a preferred mechanism for knowledge dissemination in fields such as the computer sciences. Chapter 1 | South Asia: a diverse region 15 Figure 1 South Asian (orange) and comparator (blue) countries in this report 16 South Asia: Challenges and benefits of research collaboration in a diverse region South Asian countries AFG | Afghanistan PAK | Pakistan IND | India NPL | Nepal BTN | Bhutan BGD | Bangladesh LKA | Sri Lanka 8 MDV | Maldives Comparator countries CHN | China THA | Thailand VNM | Vietnam MYS | Malaysia IDN | Indonesia BRA | Brazil Chapter 1 | South Asia: a diverse region 17 It is observed in Figure 3 that within South Asia and among Figure 3 shows that among South Asian countries and comparator countries, GDP appears to be directly correlated comparators, GERD appears to be positively correlated with with the number of scholarly publications. However, scholarly output, but as with GDP, scholarly output varies research output per unit of GDP varies considerably by significantly by country even when GERD is taken into country. Malaysia, for example, publishes more scholarly account. For example, India and Brazil have similar GERD papers than its GDP level would predict, while the opposite levels, yet India publishes a greater number of scholarly correlation is shown for Indonesia. Between 2012 and 2016, papers. With Figure 2, we see that within South Asia, both GERD represented 2.5 percent of Malaysia’s GDP, compared Pakistan and Sri Lanka produce a large number of scholarly to just 0.2 percent of Indonesia’s. Malaysia’s strong papers relative to their level of GERD, with Sri Lanka leading performance is likely to reflect its significant investment of the region. India ranks third among South Asian countries public funds in research and development. The Malaysian and performs relatively well against global comparators, government has also consistently invested in knowledge publishing fewer papers per unit of GERD than either generation, and the “Soaring Upwards” slogan championed Indonesia or Malaysia, but more than Vietnam, Thailand, by the country’s Ministry of Higher Education has been Brazil, and China. The high publication rate of South Asian supported by increased funding. countries relative to their economic size and research budgets may suggest that regional research generates Figure 2 reveals that relative to GDP, the scholarly output a particularly positive return on investment. However, of India, Pakistan, and Nepal is in line with the regional the available data do not account for additional financial average, and higher than the global average. Bhutan also resources leveraged through international collaboration. exceeds the global average but is below South Asia’s average. Consequently, countries that utilize external resources Globally, however, Malaysia outperforms all South Asian effectively have the potential to generate a high level of countries, and its scholarly output relative to GDP is nearly research output relative to their GDP or GERD. 2.5 times the world average.18 AFG South Asian countries . BGD Comparator countries . South Asia BRA . . World BTN . CHN . . IDN . . IND . . LKA . . MDV . MYS . . NPL . PAK . . SAARC . . THA . . VNM . . WLD . . AVG. PUB/BILLIONGDP AVG. PUB/MILLIONGERD Figure 2 Number of scholarly publications per unit GDP (lhs) and GERD (rhs), South Asian countries and global comparator countries, 2012-2016. Sources: World Bank, UNESCO, and Scopus® 18. Ranai, M., 2017, ’Soaring Upwards’ Budget will keep MoHE on a roll. 18 South Asia: Challenges and benefits of research collaboration in a diverse region Panel A | all countries K South Asian countries CHN CHN , K K Comparator countries , K South Asia South Asian countries CHN CHN , K Comparator countries , K , K South Asia , K , K , K , K PUBLICATIONS , K , K PUBLICATIONS , K , K K , K SAARC SAARC K K IND IND K SAARC SAARC K BRA BRA IND IND K MYS MYS K K IDN BRA IDN BRA K MYS MYS K IDN IDN B B B B B B B B B T T T T T T T T T B , B , B , B , GDP GERD B B B B B T T T T T T T T T , , , , Panel B | zoomed view GDP GERD K THA THA PAK PAK K THA THA K PAK PAK K K PUBLICATIONS K K PUBLICATIONS K VNM K VNM VNM BGD K K VNM NPL BGD LKA LKA K AFG K NPL LKA BTN MDV LKA AFG B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B K BTN MDV B , B , B , B , B , B , B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B GDP GERD , , , , , , GDP GERD Figure 3 Number of scholarly publications versus GDP (lhs) and GERD (rhs), South Asian countries and global comparator countries, 2012-2016. Sources: World Bank, UNESCO, and Scopus® Chapter 1 | South Asia: a diverse region 19 In addition to economic size and research investment, each A different pattern emerges when scholarly output is country’s scholarly output is influenced by population size normalized by the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) and total number of researchers (see Figure 5). As illustrated researchers. Figure 4 reveals that Sri Lanka produces more in Figure 4, all South Asian countries have relatively low papers per FTE researcher than any other South Asian or levels of scholarly output per capita, as their populations comparator country. While China is on a par with the world tend to be large in relation to the size of their research average, it is observed that Sri Lanka, India, the South bases. Bhutan leads the region in scholarly output per Asia region, and Malaysia all exceed the global average capita, followed by India. Among global comparators, for scholarly papers per FTE researcher. However, as with Malaysia produces an exceptional number of papers per research investment, these figures do not account for the capita, followed by China, Brazil, and Thailand. potential impact of international collaboration on productivity per FTE researcher. AFG South Asian countries . BGD Comparator countries . South Asia BRA , . World BTN . CHN , . . IDN . IND . . LKA . . MDV . MYS , . . NPL . PAK . . SAARC . . THA . . VNM . . WLD . , , , , , , , , , . . . . . . AVG. PUB/POPULATION (MILLION) AVG. PUB/RESEARCHERS (FTE) Figure 4 Number of scholarly publications by population size (lhs) and number of FTE researchers (rhs), South Asian countries and global comparator countries, 2012-2016. Sources: UNESCO and Scopus® 20 South Asia: Challenges and benefits of research collaboration in a diverse region Panel A | all countries , K , K CHN CHN South Asian countries CHN CHN , K South Asian countries , K Comparator countries Comparator countries , K South Asia , K South Asia , K , K , K , K , K , K PUBLICATIONS , K PUBLICATIONS , K , K , K K K SAARC SAARC K IND SAARC SAARC K IND IND IND K K BRA BRA MYS K MYS MYS K MYS THA PAK THA PAK THA K IDN THA K NPL VNM IDN VNM NPL VNM VNM , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , POPULATION (MILLION) RESEARCHERS FTE POPULATION (MILLION) RESEARCHERS FTE Panel B | zoomed view MYS MYS K MYS MYS K K K K K PUBLICATIONS PUBLICATIONS THA K THA PAK THA K PAK PAK THA PAK K IDN K IDN K VNM VNM K VNM BGD VNM BGD LKA BTN LKA NPL NPL LKA K BTN LKA K AFG MDV AFG MDV KK KK KK KK KK KK KK POPULATION (MILLION) RESEARCHERS FTE POPULATION (MILLION) RESEARCHERS FTE Figure 5 Number of scholarly publications versus population size (lhs) and number of FTE researchers (rhs), South Asian countries and global comparator countries, 2012-2016. Sources: UNESCO and Scopus® Chapter 1 | South Asia: a diverse region 21 1.2 South Asia’s scholarly impact in comparative perspective The contribution of a country’s researchers cannot be Disease studies accounted for 8,809 citations out of the measured solely in terms of their scholarly output, but 11,866 citations received during the period (74%), despite also by the extent to which their output advances global comprising less than 3 percent of the country’s scholarly knowledge in or beyond their respective fields. The impact output. Afghanistan’s experience emphasizes the key role of scholarly publications can be measured by the Field- of international collaboration as a driver of citation impact Weighted Citation Impact indicator (FWCI), which compares among countries with smaller, less prolific research bases. the actual number of citations received by a paper with the expected number of citations for papers of the same document type, publication year, and subject area. LKA MDV NPL PAK AFG BGD BTN IND The FWCI is a normalized index of citation activity with a , , , , , global baseline of 1.00. Consistent with the findings of previous studies,19 analysis indicates that while researchers in India produce numerous scholarly papers, research in several smaller countries + tends to have a greater citation impact (Figure 6). South Asia’s overall citation impact is below the world average, but the citation impact of Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, fwci Afghanistan, Bhutan, and the Maldives all exceed the world average. Multiple large-scale collaborative projects boost the citation impact of these countries, especially hyper- collaborated physics papers and internationally relevant medical research including clinical guidelines, World Health Organization studies, and publications produced as part of the Global Burden of Disease program. The latter has a highly beneficial effect on the citation impact of Figure 6 countries with lower levels of scholarly output. Afghanistan Number and share of scholarly publications (data label and angle of slice) and FWCI (color), per South Asian country, 2012-2016 Source: Scopus® is a particular example of this, where Global Burden of 19. Gul, S., Mahajan, I., Shah, T. A., Tramboo, S. R., & Nahida-Tun-Nisa. (2015). Research endeavour of SAARC nations: A reflection from InCites. Paper presented at the 2015 4th International Symposium on Emerging Trends and Technologies in Libraries and Information Services, ETTLIS 2015 - Proceedings, 229-233. doi:10.1109/ ETTLIS.2015.7048203 22 South Asia: Challenges and benefits of research collaboration in a diverse region To address critical shared development challenges, regional governments must improve the quality of education at all levels, develop criteria to identify priority research areas, and establish mechanisms to enhance the quality and quantity of scholarship in those priority areas. Increasing the citation impact of scholarly publications can enhance their contribution to national and international research, and output volumes should not be increased at the expense of publication quality. To simultaneously improve both the quantity and quality of research output, governments must mobilize financial resources to support postgraduate students and postdoctoral research fellows. Specific funds and financial incentives should also be established to promote domestic, intraregional, and extra-regional research collaborations. Investing in collaborative knowledge production can generate positive economic and labor market outcomes for individual countries, while also yielding critical insights into common regional challenges.20 Defining and measuring scholarly output This report measures scholarly output in terms of the total number of peer-reviewed scholarly publications compiled in the Scopus® database (including research papers, systematic reviews, and conference proceedings). Scholarly output for each country is defined as the number of papers with at least one author from that country. Papers produced through international collaboration are recorded once for each country and deduplicated at aggregated levels. For example, a paper co-authored by a researcher in India and a researcher in Sri Lanka would be measured as one paper for India and one paper for Sri Lanka, as well as one paper for South Asia as a whole. 20. For an overview of regional efforts to improve the quality of scholarly research and enhance the impact of international collaborations, please see the Annex. Chapter 1 | South Asia: a diverse region 23 1.3 Focus areas of South Asian research A Relative Activity Index (RAI) can identify areas of scholarly The SAARC specifies agriculture, rural development, specialization at national and regional level. The RAI is environmental management, natural-disaster risk calculated as the share of scholarly output represented by a mitigation, and biotechnology as priorities for regional given field at country or regional level, relative to the share of collaboration, which is reflected in South Asia’s scholarly scholarly output represented by that same field worldwide. It specialization. At a national level, South Asia’s focus on reveals how intensively researchers at country or regional level engineering and technology is driven by India, while the focus on a given field, relative to researchers worldwide. For natural sciences are an area of specialization for India, example, the agricultural sciences account for 7.9 percent of Bhutan, and the Maldives. The agricultural sciences are an South Asia’s scholarly output, versus 6.8 percent worldwide. important focus for all South Asian countries except India, South Asia’s RAI for the agricultural sciences is therefore 1.16 while Nepal prioritizes the medical sciences to a much (or 7.9 divided by 6.8). greater degree than any other South Asian country. South Asia’s citation impact is closest to the global average Reflecting the region’s priority development challenges, in engineering and technology, and it represents 80 significant research in South Asia focuses on disciplines percent of the global average in the natural sciences. related to food production, infrastructure, and economic However, South Asia’s citation impact in the agricultural productivity. South Asia’s aggregate RAI scores for sciences is relatively low, despite the agricultural sciences engineering and technology, the natural sciences, the being an important focus for almost all regional countries. agricultural sciences, and the medical sciences are all slightly above the global average, while its scores for the social sciences and especially the humanities are well below the global average (Figure 7). 24 South Asia: Challenges and benefits of research collaboration in a diverse region South Asia India . Engineering . Engineering and and . Technologies . Technologies . . Humanities Humanities Natural Natural . Sciences . Sciences . . . . Social Agricultural Social Agricultural Sciences Sciences Sciences Sciences Medical Medical Sciences Sciences Pakistan Bangladesh . Engineering . Engineering and and . Technologies . Technologies . . Humanities Humanities Natural Natural . Sciences . Sciences . . . . Social Agricultural Social Agricultural Sciences Sciences Sciences Sciences Medical Medical Sciences Sciences Sri Lanka Nepal . Engineering . Engineering and and . Technologies . Technologies . . Humanities Humanities Natural Natural . Sciences . Sciences . . . . Social Agricultural Social Agricultural Sciences Sciences Sciences Sciences Medical Medical Sciences Sciences RAI FWCI World average Figure 7 RAI and rebased FWCI for the world, South Asia, and South Asian countries that published over 1,000 publications between 2012 and 2016. Source: Scopus® Chapter 1 | South Asia: a diverse region 25 Relative weight LBQ657 Kalpana Myllocerus Picroside I Osteobrama Mastacembelus Armatus Isodecyl Alcohol Momordica Dioica Leucas Aspera Grewia Asiatica Hygrophila Auriculata Thiophene-2-carbohydrazide Esomus Danricus Picroside II Drug Combination Picroside I Nymphaea Nouchali Eudragit RSPO Invexity Henosepilachna Vigintioctopunctata Sperata Ixora Coccinea Oligonychus Co eae Mimusops Elengi Rauvolfia Tetraphylla Lepidium Latifolium Propaquizafop Strychnos Potatorum Alpinia Calcarata Maximum Permissible Intake Ompok Nyctanthes Arbor-tristis Abies pindrow Streptomyces Variabilis Ophiorrhiza BESEB CDRI-08 Carissa Carandas Bacterial Insecticides Acacia Modesta Anopheles Subpictus Mesocyclops Aspericornis Serratia Nematodiphila Berberis Lycium Kerria Lacca Alpha-ethoxy-4-(2-(2-methyl-5-(4-methylthio)phenyl))-1H-pyrrol-1-yl)ethoxy))benzenepropanoic Acid Pongamia Uroteuthis Firearms Lannea Coromandelica Rocket Oxidizers Saraca Asoca Entoloma 22pi Smaragdyrin Rosa Centifolia Chilli Leaf Curl Virus tetramethylene-1,4-bis(dimethyltetradecylammonium 1-methylpyrrolidin-2-one Shankhpushpi Anilofos Dumka Francolinus Francolinus 5,7-dihydroxy-2-methyl-8-(4-(3-hydroxy-1-methyl)-piperidinyl)-4H-1-benzopyran-4-one Pentavac Azima Tetracantha Phenacoccus Solenopsis Tetra-n-octyldiglycolamide Acid Violet 6B 4-chlorobenzenesulfonamide Aerva Lanata Bacoside A3 2,2'-bipyridine-3,3'-diol Aquiflexum Argulus Bengalensis Sargassum Wightii Aseel (chicken breed) Phormidium Foveolarum 68Ga-DOTANOC Mungbean Yellow Mosaic India Virus Gladiolus Grandiflorus Fumaria Parviflora Haplusterts Anabaena Fertilissima 1,2-dibromo-1-phenylethane Phynox Aristolochia Bracteolata Leucinodes Orbonalis SA-14-14-2 Vaccine Mimusops Private Sector Banks Chaetosphaeriales Haplustepts Bismark Brown Aconitum Heterophyllum Caralluma Tuberculata Dicladispa Sphaeranthus Indicus Hippophae Salicifolia Bacillus Smithii Public Sector Banks Cyclobacteriaceae Cucumis Maderaspatanus Pinus Gerardiana Xenentodon Zn0.96Cu0.04O Enicostema Agnuside Figure 8 Top 100 terms used in scholarly publications by number of publications (size) and relative weight (color), South Asia, 2012-2016. Sources: Scopus® and Elsevier Fingerprint Engine™ 26 South Asia: Challenges and benefits of research collaboration in a diverse region A list of the 100 most prominent terms used in South Asia’s health-related terms are also prominent. Among the top scholarly publications highlights the region’s specialization 20, the Anopheles Subpictus mosquito species ranks in the agricultural sciences (Figure 8). Many of the most second in terms of number of papers, reflecting the burden frequently used terms are plant and crop names, such of mosquito-borne disease in the region. The third is as Pongamia, a genus of trees with promising biofuel 68Ga-DOTANOC, a carcinoid detector used primarily to applications. Plants and pests comprise more than half diagnose gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine of the top 20 terms by number of papers. Medical or tumors (GEP-NETs).21 Assessing scholarly specialization Identifying the most prominent terms in a body of published research can yield important insights into areas of national and regional specialization. The Elsevier Fingerprint Engine™ uses natural language processing techniques to mine the text of scientific documents. Key terms are identified in thesauri spanning all major scholarly disciplines. The Elsevier Fingerprint Engine™ then creates an index of terms weighted according to their “semantic fingerprint.” This index consists of all the key concepts derived from a given text, weighted to reflect their relative importance. 21. J Nucl Med. 2013 Mar;54(3):364-72. doi: 10.2967/jnumed.112.111724. Epub 2013 Jan 7 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih. gov/pubmed/23297077 Chapter 1 | South Asia: a diverse region 27 28 South Asia: Challenges and benefits of research collaboration in a diverse region Chapter 2 Challenges and benefits of research collaboration 2.1 International collaboration in South Asia Collaboration is vital to scientific innovation, as it facilates Among South Asian countries, economic size appears to the exchange of ideas and expands the range of perspectives be inversely correlated with international collaboration, as on a given subject.22 International collaboration can yield countries with the smallest economies are the most reliant highly significant benefits among countries with lower on international academic networks. While only 16 percent levels of GDP and GERD, by enabling them to leverage of India’s scholarly output is produced through international and complement the resources of countries with more collaboration, this figure rises to 75 percent in Afghanistan, developed research bases. However, less than 20 percent of Bhutan, and the Maldives. Since scholarly papers produced South Asia’s scholarly publications are produced through through international collaboration tend to have a international collaboration. India drives this trend, as its relatively high citation impact, internationally-collaborative researchers undertake relatively low levels of international publications have a significant influence on the FWCI of collaboration by regional standards (Figure 9). South Asia’s these countries. International collaborations in South Asia overall collaboration rate is consistent with the global generally reflect areas of national specialization, but they average, and slightly higher than that of China. tend to be more prominent in the agricultural sciences and less frequent in the social sciences and the humanities. 22. de Beaver, 2013. The Many Faces of Collaboration and Teamwork in Scientific Research: Updated Reflections on Scientific Collaboration, COLLNET Journal of Scientometrics and Information Management, 7:1, 45-54, DOI: 10.1080/09737766.2013.802629 30 South Asia: Challenges and benefits of research collaboration in a diverse region South Asian countries Internationally Comparator countries collaborated publications South Asia World IND | , AFG | AFG LKA WLD CHN FWCI BRA NPL PAK BGD VNM BTN IDN IND THA SAARC MDV MYS % % % % % % % % % % % % OF PUBLICATIONS Figure 9 International collaboration by number of publications (size of circles), share of total scholarly publications (x-axis), and FWCI (y-axis), World, South Asian countries, and comparator countries, 2012-2016. Source: Scopus® Chapter 2 | Challenges and benefits of research collaboration 31 2.2 South Asia in the international collaboration network Historically, South Asian countries have pursued extra- The SAARC countries would benefit from increased regional rather than intraregional scholarly collaborations. intraregional cooperation, yet South Asia remains the Extra-regional collaborations offer important benefits, least economically integrated region in the world.24 especially in fields such as the natural sciences that rely Recent research has identified opportunities for on highly sophisticated scientific facilities and equipment. South Asian countries to work together to increase However, intraregional collaborations can help South intraregional trade, travel, and commerce,25 Asian countries address common regional challenges in and increased scholarly collaboration could initiate areas such as agriculture, medicine, and infrastructure. other aspects of intraregional cooperation. Intraregional collaboration across South Asia is also crucial to achieving the SAARC Charter objectives “to promote and South Asian countries are currently scattered across the strengthen collective self-reliance among the countries of global collaboration network. Rather than operating within a South Asia; to contribute to mutual trust, understanding common collaborative framework, each South Asian country and appreciation of one another’s problems; to promote manages its own system for international collaboration. The active collaboration and mutual assistance in the economic, most prolific international collaborators, India and Pakistan, social, cultural, technical and scientific fields; to strengthen are closer to the center of the global collaboration network, cooperation with other developing countries; to strengthen while less prolific collaborators such as Afghanistan, cooperation among themselves in international forums Bangladesh, the Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka are on the on matters of common interests; and to cooperate with outer edge as shown in Figure 10. international and regional organizations with similar aims and purposes.” 23 Analyzing international collaboration To study international collaboration, we rely on the affiliation country specified by authors of scholarly papers. A paper with at least two different countries in the author affiliation byline is deemed to result from international collaboration. In this analysis, whole rather than fractional counting is applied, which means that a paper written by authors with affiliations in several countries is counted once in each country’s total, but deduplicated at aggregated levels ( for example, across South Asia). 23. SAARC Secretariat website, http://www.saarc-sec.org/ 24. World Bank, 2015. Benefits and Opportunities of Regional Cooperation in South Asia, http://www.worldbank. org/en/news/video/2015/11/06/regional-integration-the-answer-to-south-asias-development 25. De and Rahman, 2017. Regional Integration in South Asia. https://files.acrobat.com/a/ preview/97b32311-8b7c-478d-8783-9193dd7cc859 32 South Asia: Challenges and benefits of research collaboration in a diverse region South Asian countries Comparator countries CHN | , AFG | Internationally collaborated publications Scholarly output produced through international collaborations Figure 10 Global international collaboration network showing South Asian countries in orange and comparator countries in blue, 2012-2016; source: Scopus® Note: the size of the nodes denotes the number of publications resulting from international collaboration for each country, while the thickness of the lines denotes the number of publications resulting from international collaboration between countries. For clarity, the following filters have been implemented: for nodes, South Asian country, or country with over 20,000 internationally-collaborated publications. For edges, collaboration between South Asian countries, or collaboration with South Asian country with over 5,000 internationally-col- laborated publications. Chapter 2 | Challenges and benefits of research collaboration 33 AFG BGD BTN IND LKA MDV NPL PAK AFG 18 56 15 12 62 BGD 13 601 66 1 133 336 BTN 52 7 2 18 6 IND 531 16 708 1,532 LKA 5 51 285 MDV 5 NPL 104 PAK Table 1 International scholarly collaboration among South Asian countries, 2012-2016. Source: Scopus® Note: Each cell shows the number of collaborative publications produced by each country pair. India and Pakistan publish the largest number of India’s prominence as an intraregional collaborator reduces collaborative papers in South Asia, and most frequently when the number of collaborative papers is adjusted to collaborate with each other. India also collaborates account for the size of each country’s scholarly output and frequently with Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh. the frequency of its international collaborations (Figure 11, Collaborations between Pakistan and Bangladesh are less lower panel). Collaborations between India and Pakistan also common, as are collaborations between Pakistan and Sri become less prominent when these factors are controlled Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal, and Nepal and Pakistan. for, while collaborations between Pakistan and Bangladesh, Other bilateral pairings are marginal, and Afghanistan, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal, and Nepal Bhutan, and the Maldives rarely engage in international and Sri Lanka, become increasingly prevalent. While the collaboration with other South Asian countries. collaborative link between Bhutan and the Maldives is strengthened, this is largely attributed to their low levels of scholarly output. 34 South Asia: Challenges and benefits of research collaboration in a diverse region AFG PAK IND MDV LKA BGD IND | , AFG | Internationally NPL collaborated publications Scholarly output BTN produced through international collaborations AFG PAK IND MDV LKA BGD IND | , AFG | NPL Internationally collaborated publications BTN Scholarly output produced through international collaborations relative to the total scholarly output of each country Figure 11 Scholarly output produced through international collaborations in absolute terms (upper panel) and relative to the total scholarly output of each country pair (lower panel), South Asian countries, 2012-2016; source: Scopus® Chapter 2 | Challenges and benefits of research collaboration 35 2.3 Characteristics of collaboration types While intraregional collaboration represents a marginal It is observed that overall patterns of collaboration tend share of all international collaborations in South Asia, to be consistent in individual subject areas, with higher the relative importance of intraregional collaboration levels of intraregional collaboration in the agricultural varies significantly by country (Figure 12). Intraregional sciences and lower levels of intraregional collaboration collaboration accounts for just 0.15 percent of all in the social sciences and the humanities. Importantly, collaborative papers in South Asia; however, this rises the difference in citation impact between intra and to 5-10 percent among countries with relatively modest extra-regional collaboration is smaller for the agricultural levels of scholarly output, including Nepal, Afghanistan, sciences, the natural sciences, and the social sciences Bhutan, and the Maldives. Extra-regional collaborations than it is for other subject areas, highlighting the have a higher average citation impact than intraregional strong regional relevance of these fields to South Asia’s collaborations, due in part to large-scale, high-impact development challenges (Figure 12). projects such as hyper-collaborated physics papers and internationally relevant medical research. This includes clinical guidelines, World Health Organization studies, and publications produced as part of the Global Burden of Disease program. Intraregional collaboration extra-regional collaboration All SAARC , , . .. IND , . . PAK . . , BGD , . . LKA , . . NPL , . . AFG . . BTN . . MDV . . Agricultural SAARC , . . Sciences IND , . . PAK , . . BGD , . . LKA . . NPL . . AFG . . BTN . . MDV . Engineering SAARC , . . and IND , . . Technologies PAK , . . BGD , . . LKA . . NPL . . AFG . . BTN . . MDV . % % % % % % % % % % of publications fwci Figure 12 Intraregional collaboration (light orange) and extra-regional collaboration (dark orange) by percentage and number of scholarly publications (lhs) and FWCI (rhs) among South Asian countries, overall and by discipline, 2012-2016. Source: Scopus® 36 South Asia: Challenges and benefits of research collaboration in a diverse region Intraregional collaboration extra-regional collaboration Humanities SAARC . . IND . . PAK . . BGD . . LKA . . NPL . . AFG . BTN . Medical SAARC . . . Sciences IND , . . PAK , . . BGD , . . LKA , . . NPL , . . AFG . . BTN . . MDV . . Natural SAARC , . . Sciences IND , . . PAK , . . BGD , . . LKA , . . NPL , . . AFG . . BTN . . MDV . . Social SAARC , . . Sciences IND , . . PAK , . . BGD . . LKA . . NPL . . AFG . . BTN . . MDV . . % % % % % % % % % % of publications fwci Chapter 2 | Challenges and benefits of research collaboration 37 Countries and geographic designations are the most Many of South Asia’s intraregional research collaborations frequently used terms in extra-regional collaborations (Figure appear to address local issues or regional challenges. 13). The five most common terms are Pakistan, Bangladesh, Location names feature prominently among the most Nepal, South Asia, and Sri Lanka, and 7 of the top 10 terms frequently used terms in intraregional collaborations, and are geographic. The LIGO physics observatory features as three of the top five terms are geographic (Figure 14). The the sixth most frequently used term, with “global burden of regional focus on the agricultural sciences is evident in disease” in tenth place. Several of the 100 most frequently the frequency of terms related to crops and yields, which used terms also relate to hyper-collaborated physics research include 4 of the top 10 terms, as well as other words related or globally-relevant medical studies, reflecting the influence to agriculture and food production, such as “farmers” of large-scale global projects on extra-regional collaboration and “edible.” Many of the most common terms relate to in South Asia. The region’s focus on the agricultural sciences geological features and land characteristics, with water is less prominent, but still visible through the names of emerging as a major theme. The top 100 terms also feature fungi and plants. The importance of regional medical key aspects of sustainable development, such as climate research is also evident in the term “mosquito-borne change, health, and resource management. diseases”, as well as the names of specific mosquito species. Several species of animals also appear on the list, possibly Comparing the most prominent terms used in intra and reflecting research related to ecological conservation. extra-regional collaborations suggests that intraregional Relative weight Shanchol Zagreb Index Coe cient Inequalities Plant Organization Diazinane-2-thione Diplonychus Azoreductase Panthera Uncia HLA-DQ alpha-Chains Bhutan Peristaltic Flow Rural India Piriformospora Indica Nepal Cirrhinus Mrigala Culex Tritaeniorhynchus Fuzzy Ideal Vitex Trifolia Beta-glucuronidase Inhibitor Anuradhapura South Asia Tomato Leaf Curl New Delhi Virus Germplasm Exchange Monomial Curve 1,2-benzothiazine Anopheles Subpictus Chaetosphaeriales Turbinaria Conoides Higgs Bundles Ganges River 3,5-di-tert-butylcatechol Global Burden of Disease Bangladesh Close-to-convex Achyranthes Aspera Panel Unit Root Tests 1,2-dibromo-1-phenylethane Behavior Evaluation Bacterial Insecticides Schwarz Lemma Senna Alata 7-deazaxanthine Centhaquine Feedback Vertex Set Invexity Signature Verification LIGO (observatory) Dothideomycetes Hermite-Hadamard Inequality Mesocyclops Aspericornis 3-rhamnopyranosyl(1-4)-glucopyranosyl-12-diacetoxy-20-hydroxywitha-5,24-dienolide Fuzzy Point Stretching Sheet Saccharic acid-1,4-lactone Pakistan Melanthiaceae 2,2-dimethyl-1,3-diaminopropane Stretching Surface Roman Script Sordariomycetes Mismatch Amplification mutation Assay Fumaria Parviflora Irregularity Strength Branching Time Semi Arid Watershed Chama Impromptu 5-bromosalicylaldehyde Ostrowski Type Inequality Parameterized Algorithms RRNA (adenosine-O-2'-)methyltransferase Parabolic Bundle Kashmir Earthquake 2005 Grà ss Inequality Gorkha Earthquake 2015 Pseudois Nayaur Sri Lanka Max-cut Mosquito-borne Diseases Glycylphenylalanine Frankincense Kernelization Ostrowski Inequality Parameterized Complexity Ongole Distribution of Work Sitosterol-3-O-glucopyranoside Tenualosa Ilisha Producer's Risk Harmonic Mapping Commuting Mappings Aphanomyces Gum Ghatti Imidazolidine-2,4-dione Pregnane Glycoside Filtergrams Subgiant Stars Urdu LBQ657 Wrightia Figure 13 Top 100 terms used in extra-regionally collaborated research publications by number of scholarly publications (size) and relative weight (color), South Asian countries, 2012-2016. Sources: Scopus® and Elsevier Fingerprint Engine™ 38 South Asia: Challenges and benefits of research collaboration in a diverse region collaborations can have a practical focus, as their most Two key challenges inhibit research collaboration in South frequently used terms tend to be more pragmatic and those Asia. The first is a lack of funding, as few resources are used in extra-regional collaborations more theoretical. dedicated to supporting scholarly collaboration, especially Further analysis could examine whether the type of intraregional collaboration. Increasing national investment collaboration influences whether South Asian research in research and development could encourage greater is applied or basic. Detailed analysis of extra-regional collaboration at the domestic, intraregional, and extra- collaboration on topics such as agriculture could examine regional levels, whilst also expanding collaborative efforts links between South Asia and regions with similar research to encompass a more diverse range of researchers and specializations and development priorities, such as institutions. The second challenge is proposal development, Sub-Saharan Africa. as regional researchers often lack the specialized skills necessary to produce high-quality research proposals. Overall, the data indicates considerable scope for greater National governments, regional higher education, and intraregional research collaboration among South Asian research associations are positioned to address these countries. Investing dedicated funds to incentivize challenges, and could implement programs and funding collaborative research in countries with relatively modest schemes specifically designed to stimulate intraregional research bases such as Afghanistan, Bhutan, and the collaboration. Opportunities such as scholarships and Maldives, could yield significant gains in a short period fellowships could increase academic exchange and attract of time. The value of intraregional collaboration in grants for projects that address region-wide challenges. South Asia could be further enhanced by focusing on Over the longer term, measures that reduce income shared priority areas, such as improving land and inequality and expand education access will be vital to the water management, boosting agricultural production, quantity, quality, and international impact of collaborative and combatting endemic diseases. research in South Asia. Relative weight Forests Dione Wire Logic Hospital Anti-Infective Agents Flaps (control surfaces) Binary Alloys Co-ordinate Geometry Oryza Seats High Speed Elemental Analysis South Asia Fabaceae Motifs Sustainable Development Structural Basins Growth Rate Inbreeding Length of Stay Cotton Dihedral Angle Bangladesh Crop Yield Climate Change Biomolecular Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Constituent Power Law Edible Grain Density of States Structural Properties Field Programmable Gate Array Microsatellite Repeats Ring Mixing Sustainable Pakistan Seasons Amantadine Pyrrolidine Marker Nepal India Farmers Grain Size Clinical Examination Dust Minor Remote Sensing Triticum Quantum Varieties Genetic Variation Bioactive Properties Groundwater Hydrogen Bonding Empirical Study Medical Problems Levenberg-Marquardt Concentration (composition) Plains Emergence Alternate Conformation Agriculture Envelope Plasmas (physics) Phylogeny Hydrogen Bonds Village No-tillage Roasting Sri Lanka Traits Ships Summer T-test Deviation Coprecipitation Ferrite Grain Yield Groundwater Resources Field Experiment Microbial Sensitivity Tests Zea Mays Cultivars Degenerate Hardware Description Languages Dimers Chemical Composition Crop District Energy E cient Piperidine Conservation Amplification Informed Consent Complexation Figure 14 Top 100 terms used in intraregionally collaborated research publications by number of scholarly publications (size) and relative weight (color), South Asian countries, 2012-2016. Source: Scopus® and Elsevier Fingerprint Engine™ Chapter 2 | Challenges and benefits of research collaboration 39 40 South Asia: Challenges and benefits of research collaboration in a diverse region Chapter 3 Knowledge transfer between the public and private sectors 3.1 Knowledge transfer between sectors Knowledge transfer between sectors26 can improve the Collaborations between academia and the private sector quality of scientific research, strengthen its citation impact, account for roughly 1.3 percent of South Asia’s scientific and increase the value of its applications. Collaboration output (Figure 15), about half the global rate. Among can encourage knowledge transfer not only between South Asian countries, only Afghanistan exceeds the global countries, but also between the public and private sectors. rate for academic-corporate collaborations. In South Asia Knowledge transfer between academic institutions and and among comparator countries, academic-corporate private firms can enhance the economic contribution of collaborations tend to have a relatively high FWCI, which universities and public research agencies, as well as promote is boosted by large-scale collaborations such as the better labor market outcomes.27 Analyzing collaborative Global Burden of Disease studies. Academic-corporate publications between academia and the private sector can collaborations most frequently occur in the natural sciences, highlight intersectoral knowledge transfer and open further as well as in engineering and technology. opportunities for scientific cooperation in South Asia. Analyzing knowledge transfer Collaboration is not the only way for knowledge to pass between sectors. The transition from theoretical research to practical application also represents a critical form of knowledge transfer from academia to industry. Citations of scholarly papers in patents can serve as a proxy for this form of knowledge transfer. 26. Scopus® designates a sector for each institution, such as academic, medical, or governmental. 27. Parker, 1992. “Industry - university collaboration in developed and developing countries (English).” Education and Employment Division Background Paper Series no. PHREE 92/64. Washington, D.C.: the World Bank. http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/675261468740666204/ Industry-university-collaboration-in-developed-and-developing-countries 42 South Asia: Challenges and benefits of research collaboration in a diverse region South Asian countries Academic-corporate Comparator countries collaborated publications South Asia World CHN | , PAK | , AFG LKA NPL FWCI BGD PAK VNM IDN WLD MDV BRA CHN MYS IND BTN THA SAARC . % . % . % . % . % . % . % . % . % . % % OF PUBLICATIONS Figure 15 Academic-corporate collaborations by share of total publications (x-axis), number of publications (size of circles), and FWCI (y-axis), South Asia and comparator countries, 2012-2016. Source: Scopus® Chapter 3 | Knowledge transfer between the public and private sectors 43 With the exception of Afghanistan, most South Asian Collaboration between academia and the private sector countries and their extra-regional comparators tend to have has significant potential to promote social change and fewer patent citations than the world average in relation to increase intraregional cooperation. Currently, South Asian their scholarly output (Figure 16). While this may be partly corporations rely very little on the knowledge produced attributed to coverage of the World Intellectual Property by local academics, and regional governments could take Organization database, it could also identify an opportunity steps to stimulate academic-corporate collaboration. to enhance cross-sector knowledge transfer through greater Establishing Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs) at academic-corporate collaboration. The largest shares universities could provide an interface between academic of patent citations are in the agricultural sciences, the institutions and private firms. Measures could also be medical sciences, and the natural sciences. Further analysis taken to encourage academic institutions to produce could reveal how cross-sector knowledge transfer affects more commercially-relevant research, such as allocating intraregional collaboration, raising opportunities to funds for academic-corporate collaborations, building increase collaboration between South Asian countries. the capacity of patent offices, and providing training in intellectual property literacy. WLD , . South Asian countries CHN , . Comparator countries SAARC , . South Asia IND World , . BRA , . MYS , . THA , . PAK . IDN . VNM . BGD . LKA . NPL . AFG . K K K K K K . . . . . . PATENTS CITATION AVG. PATCIT/PUB Figure 16 Patent citations numbers (lhs) and patent citations per scholarly publication (rhs), for the world, for South Asia, per South Asian country, per comparator country; 2012-2016. Sources: Scopus® and WIPO 44 South Asia: Challenges and benefits of research collaboration in a diverse region Dedicated funding to support academic-corporate collaboration could strengthen ties between the private sector, national scientific organizations, and tertiary education institutions. This would leverage private resources to support research and patent submissions by academics, while increasing the productivity of industries. Establishing TTOs on university campuses could enhance the relevance of academic research in relation to private sector competitiveness and productivity. TTOs can serve as innovation spaces and business incubators that allow students, faculty, and firms to collaboratively develop marketable technologies. TTOs can also expand the capacity of universities to train students in intellectual property policies, licensing agreements, and the national and international laws governing intellectual property rights. The latter is critical, as many South Asian countries lack strong legal frameworks for defining and protecting intellectual property rights. Legal assistance provided via TTOs should be supported by legislative reforms, designed to ensure that researchers profit directly from the value their innovations create. Competitive funding mechanisms to strengthen research capacity: Sri Lanka’s higher education for the 21st century project 28 Funded by the Ministry of Higher Education and the World Bank, Sri Lanka’s Higher Education for the 21st Century project incentivizes academic-corporate partnerships through its Quality and Innovation Grants, which focus on research dissemination and commercialization. These grants have been the catalyst for internal performance-based reforms, promoting improved institutional management. The project also revealed considerable demand for academic-corporate collaboration and encouraged advocacy for stronger intellectual property rights. 28 More information on Sri Lanka’s higher education for the 21st century project can be found at http://projects.worldbank.org/P113402/higher-education-twenty-first-century-project?lang=en Chapter 3 | Knowledge transfer between the public and private sectors 45 Conclusions and recommendations Greater academic and scientific collaboration between South Asian countries could increase the region’s scholarly output and enhance its global citation impact. As South Asian countries face a range of similar challenges, collaborative research could address shared problems and reduce the region’s dependency on extra-regional collaboration. Increased collaboration between South Asian countries, as well as stronger links between academia and industry, could also enhance the commercial relevance of the region’s scholarly output, magnify its contribution to economic growth, and improve conditions in regional labor markets. Increasing GERD regionally could advance these goals, but greater funding should be accompanied by targeted policies designed to increase intraregional, extra-regional, and academic- corporate collaboration. South Asian countries must effectively leverage their research sectors to address critical development priorities, and to contribute to economic productivity and competitiveness. To achieve this, it is concluded that South Asia must address the following: 46 South Asia: Challenges and benefits of research collaboration in a diverse region 1. Increase the quantity and improve the quality of tertiary education, with a focus on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics; 2. Develop criteria to determine priority research areas at national and regional level; 3. Establish financial and administrative mechanisms to enhance the quality and quantity of research produced in priority areas, at national and regional level; 4. Encourage academic institutions to produce research that meets the needs of domestic and regional corporations, increasing the citation impact and number of patents submitted by academics while enhancing national and regional economic productivity and competitiveness; 5. Build the capacity of researchers to develop high-quality proposals, both for domestic and international projects; 6. Dedicate specific funding streams to support domestic, intraregional and extra-regional collaboration, including financial assistance, scholarships and fellowships for postgraduate students and postdoctoral research fellows; 7. Promote research partnerships between academic institutions and the private sector; 8. Establish TTOs and business incubators on university campuses to leverage the resources of the business community to support local research and development, while bolstering the competitiveness and productivity of the private sector; 9. Earmark funds for academic-corporate collaborations, build the capacity of patent offices, and provide training in intellectual property literacy to encourage academic institutions to produce more market-relevant research; and 10. Encourage greater participation in international research programs funded by multilateral institutions, to alleviate fiscal constraints on the tertiary education sector while expanding national and regional networks of scholarly collaboration. Conclusions and recommendations 47 Annex The drive for excellence: enhancing the quality of research in South Asia South Asia recognizes that innovation and knowledge are critical in sustaining productivity growth, building competitiveness, and facilitating structural economic transformation. In response to this, countries across the region have launched initiatives designed to enhance the quality of scholarly research and highlight the impact of international collaborations. As part of a strategic move to internalize higher education, educational institutions in South Asia are striving to transform their international engagement beyond the development of links between researchers and their counterparts in other countries. Faculty exchange programs are being created or expanded, the establishment of foreign university campuses is permitted, and global perspectives are being incorporated into academic programs. In a recent survey, about 70 percent of participating South Asian educational institutions reported that they support the professional development of their faculty, by building capacity to integrate international and intercultural dimensions into courses. The participating institutions cited the professional development of their faculty as the most important dimension of their internationalization efforts.29 29 World Bank, 2018. Ready to Learn, Ready to Thrive: Before School, In School, and Beyond School in South Asia. Washington, DC: The World Bank, p.267 48 South Asia: Challenges and benefits of research collaboration in a diverse region Cross-border internationalization in South Asia India Indian academic institutions and policymakers have extensively discussed how to regulate foreign universities establishing campuses in India, and concerns have been raised regarding the impact of these campuses on quality and standards of higher education. An Indian government initiative called “Institutions of Eminence” and launched in 2018 will provide selected academic institutions with greater scope to establish international partnerships, employ foreign faculty, and admit students from abroad. Sri Lanka The Sri Lankan government has authorized foreign universities to establish satellite campuses in Sri Lanka, and the development of these campuses has the potential to greatly expand domestic linkages between international academic networks. Thus far, one private domestic university has partnered with a foreign university to offer undergraduate programs in select fields. The government’s goal is to attract 10 foreign universities to Sri Lanka by 2020 and increase total international student enrollment to at least 50,000.30 30 Ibid., p.266 Annex 49 Competitive funding mechanisms for research collaboration Bangladesh In addition to expanding Financing mechanisms can also support research and innovation at national level. opportunities for global Launched in 2009, Bangladesh’s Innovation Fund supports 439 projects across 28 public and nine private universities. Committed to transparency, the fund involves engagement, South the academic institutions at all stages of the funding allocation process. In order to Asian countries have allocate funds fairly, universities of similar sizes and capacities are grouped accordingly created competitive and compete against each other. Project design, development, and implementation all take place at a university level, which has created a strong sense of ownership and funding mechanisms to responsibility for success by researchers and institutions. This has also helped shift strengthen links between the focus of research from quantity to quality. The fund also seeks to mainstream academic researchers international good practice, such as peer review, to ensure appropriate monitoring and oversight. Bangladesh’s Innovation Fund demonstrates how well-designed funding and the private sector. mechanisms can sustainably strengthen research capacity.31 India The Indian government has implemented several funding mechanisms to support research on a variety of fields including IMPRINT (for technology), IMPRESS (for social sciences), STARS (for fundamental sciences), STRIDE (for humanities and languages) and SPARC (for joint research with global best universities). Also, the GIAN funding program has helped in getting more than 1,800 academicians from foreign universities to India; and under the GIAN Plus scheme it is intended to provide an option to the Indian academicians to take short-term courses and develop research collaboration in foreign universities. Also, some regional institutions have fully integrated collaborative research into their core mission. For example, the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT Bombay) is among the region’s leading research universities. Whereas faculty members at most engineering colleges tend to focus on teaching and evaluation, at IIT Bombay they frequently undertake research and consultancy projects sponsored by Indian government agencies, foreign and domestic private firms, and international organizations. A dedicated office, the Industrial Research and Consultancy Centre, coordinates sponsored research and consultancy projects and acts as a liaison between the faculty, the university, and the project sponsors. On average, IIT Bombay’s faculty implements a total of 400–500 sponsored projects per year. This focus on collaborative research has greatly strengthened links between IIT Bombay and the private sector, setting it apart from many other Indian higher education institutions. Sponsored research and consultancy projects generate considerable revenue, and the university has established clear norms for sharing revenue from the commercialization of intellectual property, aligning faculty incentives with those of the university and its partners in the public and private sectors.32 31 World Bank, 2018. Ready to Learn, Ready to Thrive: Before School, In School, and Beyond School in South Asia. Washington, DC: The World Bank, p.289-290. 32 Jayaram, N., 2011 “Toward World-Class Status? The IIT System and IIT Bombay.” In Altbach and Salmi (eds.) The Road to Excellence: The Making of World-Class Research Universities. Washington, DC: The World Bank, pp.184-5 50 South Asia: Challenges and benefits of research collaboration in a diverse region While the proceeds from research applications can be substantial, regular financing mechanisms are essential to maintain a highly skilled pool of research scholars. To attract promising researchers, IIT Bombay offers graduate and postgraduate research fellowships and summer internships. Research fellows and interns contribute directly to research projects and may be considered for admission to postgraduate or doctoral programs. IIT Bombay faculty members and students also receive considerable financial assistance to enable them to participate in international conferences. IIT Bombay has encouraged a culture of scholarly competition by establishing multiple awards for outstanding faculty achievements in research and development.33 Pakistan Under the umbrella of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) and the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), a variety of funding opportunities for research and innovation allow higher education institutions to have access to additional financial resources. Some of the funding schemes have been developed in collaboration with partner countries, such as the US-Pakistan Centers for Advanced Studies in Energy (USPCASE). This collaboration was established as a partnership between Arizona State University and the National University of Science and Technology (NUST) in Islamabad, and the University of Engineering and Technology (UET) in Peshawar, with the goal of focusing on applied research relevant to Pakistan’s energy needs. This partnership provides a link between government, industry, and academia as well as fosters the development of policies in sustainability. In addition, competitive funding schemes are in place at HEC to support activities such as university-industry collaboration, patent development, problem-based applied interdisciplinary research, start-ups, and upgrading of laboratories and libraries. Sri Lanka Sri Lanka’s Higher Education for the 21st Century project introduced two competitive Quality and Innovation Grants: one focused on research dissemination and the other on the commercialization of research output. Supported by these grants, at least nine university faculties have produced research output with significant commercial value. Recipients reported that the grant mechanisms had fostered a culture of applied research, encouraged private-sector partnerships, spurred internal reforms to improve academic performance, and enhanced institutional management.34 33 Ibid. 34 World Bank, 2018. Ready to Learn, Ready to Thrive: Before School, In School, and Beyond School in South Asia. Washington, DC: The World Bank, p.291 Annex 51 Elsevier is a registered trademark of Elsevier B.V. | RELX Group and the RE symbol are trademarks of RELX Intellectual Properties SA, used under license. © 2019 Elsevier B.V.