Scotland research and innovation performance:
A dynamic hub for quality and global collaboration
Explore the latest trends in Scotland’s research excellence, highlighting data on high-quality outputs, extensive international collaboration,
and meaningful contributions to societal challenges.
Scotland sets the standard for research collaboration, as a global leader in international and business collaboration. Research in Scotland has many clear strengths, notably on environmental topics associated with Sustainable Development Goals (Climate Action, Life Below Water, Life on Land) that align with Scottish Government’s agenda.
As a vibrant and growing player in the global research landscape, Scotland not only demonstrates robust growth in scholarly output but also excels in research quality, with citation impact well above the global average. Scottish universities are the driving force behind this excellence, leading scholarly publications and fostering strong partnerships with industry.
Scotland’s research community plays a pivotal role in advancing both national priorities and global progress. Here, we present key insights that underscore Scotland’s position as a dynamic hub for innovative research and international collaboration.
All data refers to the period 2020 – 2024 unless otherwise stated.
Research and innovation in Scotland
Over the past five years, Scotland’s research landscape has experienced robust growth of 9.3%, culminating in a total of 153,844 scholarly publications produced by 71,697 active researchers between 2020 and 2024. This impressive output is matched by a strong commitment to quality, with an average Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) of 1.76—meaning Scottish research is cited 76% more frequently than the global average.
Subject area (THE classification)
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Scotland demonstrates strength across all major disciplines, with the highest research output in Clinical and Health sciences, accounting for 47,785 publications and an exceptional Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) of 2.28. Physical Sciences closely follow, producing 47,443 papers with an FWCI of 1.47, while Engineering and Technology contribute 31,547 publications with an FWCI of 1.34.
It is important to note that the relative activity index in Physical Sciences, Engineering, and Computer Science reflects the dominant volume of scholarly output from China, which influences global publication shares in these fields.
Global view of discipline strengths
Relative Activity Index
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The chart shows relative activity index of each discipline for selected countries, meaning the relative share of output in each discipline compared to the global average.
International collaboration
Scotland is a hub for international collaboration, with 60% of its research publications co-authored with international partners—nearly three times the global average. Research conducted with international collaborators is highly impactful, receiving nearly 50% more citations than only national collaboration and about 20% more than the average for all Scottish research.
This collaborative approach positions Scotland as a key node in the global research network, fostering knowledge exchange and driving innovation across borders.
In Scotland, internationally co-authored research achieves a Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) of 2.11, significantly higher than the overall Scottish average of 1.76.
Geographical collaboration
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Scotland’s research ecosystem thrives on extensive international partnerships across North America, Europe, and Asia. This global collaboration drives exceptionally high citation impact, demonstrating that Scotland not only generates substantial research output but also contributes to influential and widely recognized scholarship worldwide. Such international engagement significantly boosts Scotland’s research quality, global visibility, and its role in advancing scientific knowledge on the global stage.
Top 5 countries collaborating with Scotland 2020-2024
International collaboration levels
Between 2020 and 2024, Scotland’s research community has built strong collaborations with leading universities both within the UK and internationally. The following tables list the top 20 academic partners in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world. These broad and diverse partnerships highlight Scotland’s deep integration into the global research landscape.
Most prolific academic partners of Scotland (in the rest of the UK)
Most prolific academic partners of Scotland (in continental Europe)
Most prolific academic partners of Scotland (rest of world)
“Scotland is recognised as a world-leading research nation and a powerhouse of international collaboration, as the evidence so clearly demonstrates. Scottish universities are global leaders in a highly competitive research landscape.
Our researchers are playing a significant role in building meaningful partnerships across the globe, driving transformation, and innovating to solve global problems. Elsevier’s insights reinforce the notion of Scotland’s strengths in collaborating internationally to drive forward real change through research and innovation.”
Minister for Higher and Further Education, Ben Macpherson MSP
Business collaboration
Business collaboration in Scotland’s research is strong. Academic research is highly collaborative with industry, at more than twice the global average (5.8% vs. 2.6%).
The following tables list the top 20 corporate partners with headquarters in Europe and the rest of the world.
Scotland’s research and innovation has global reach, with research partnerships with businesses headquartered in the UK, across Europe, and rest of the world. This extends across sectors of the economy, from pharmaceuticals to advanced materials, digital technology and aerospace. These vibrant partnerships drive economic impact of research and innovation, and yield widely-cited, impactful research.
Academic-Corporate collaboration levels
Top corporates collaborating with Scotland
Top corporates collaborating with Scotland
Impact across sectors
In Scotland, collaboration across sectors plays a crucial role in enhancing research impact.
When universities work together with partners from business, government, and health sectors, the resulting research outputs tend to be highly influential and widely cited. Between 2020 and 2024, such cross-sector partnerships have contributed significantly to Scotland’s research excellence, with academic collaboration with industry standing out as a key driver of high-impact publications.
This collaborative approach not only strengthens Scotland’s innovation ecosystem but also helps translate research into practical solutions that benefit society.
Sector collaboration
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Social and economic impact
Patent citations and policy documents citations - Publications of last 10 years.
When evaluating Scotland’s contribution to innovation and commercialization, the share of its research cited in patents over the past decade is slightly above both the global and EU averages. While it trails behind the USA and China, Scotland’s performance is also marginally higher than the overall UK average of 3.5%, reflecting its role in driving research that supports technological advancement and commercial impact.
Patent citations publications of last 10 years
Scotland plays a leading role in shaping global policy through its research. Scottish studies are cited in policy-related documents more than twice as often as the global average and substantially more than research from both the EU and the USA. For comparison, the overall UK citation rate in policy documents stands slightly lower at 10.9%, underscoring Scotland’s strong influence on policy development worldwide.
Policy document citations publications of last 10 years
Sustainable Development Goals
Scotland demonstrates a strong commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through a diverse and impactful research portfolio. Scottish research spans all SDGs, with distinctive strengths in the relative activity of research in Scotland on environmental topics related to SDGs Climate Action, Life Below Water, Life on Land; as well as social justice topics related to SDGs Peace and Justice, Sustainable Cities and Communities, and No Poverty. This highlights Scotland’s expertise and dedication to addressing global societal challenges through research.
Scholarly output share by SDG in Scotland
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Global view of SDG research
Relative Activity Index
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Comparing to EU, USA and China, Scotland shows a higher relative activity Climate Action (SDG 13); Life below water (SDG 14)
Global research and innovation
China and the USA dominate global research output over the last five years, contributing 25% and 18% of publications respectively. Scotland, despite producing less than 1% of global publications, achieves the highest citation impact with a Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) of approximately 1.8.
The UK, Canada, Germany, and Italy each hold moderate shares of global publications, ranging from 3% to 6%, with FWCI scores between 1.3 and 1.5. India contributes around 7% of publications but has a lower FWCI of 1.1, while Russia and Japan have smaller outputs and citation impacts below the global average.
This global view highlights that Scotland excels in producing highly influential and widely recognized scholarship; and how it contributes to the UK’s overall research excellence.
World article share 2020-2024
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"Scotland’s research and innovation is world-leading, with exceptionally high quality and international reach. It serves the public through high impact collaborations with government, business and health institutions, driving prosperity and wellbeing.
Scotland has distinctive research strengths in addressing critical societal issues aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and Scottish Government’s agenda, including environment and social justice."
Dr Sarah Main, Elsevier Vice President, Academic and Government
Conclusion
These insights show that Scotland is a centre of exceptional research quality, distinguished by its strong international collaborations and meaningful societal contributions. Universities play a vital role, driving collaboration with business, government and health institutions to create research of impact and value.
Scotland’s reach extends globally with academic and business partners across the UK and the rest of the world.
As part of the UK, Scotland contributes exceptionally high quality and widely cited research, elevating the UK’s overall research performance.
Through research, innovation and collaboration, Scotland contributes to the economic prosperity and wellbeing of people in Scotland, the UK and the world.
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October 2025
We encourage you to explore these insights further and consider how they can shape future strategies for growth and collaboration within Scotland’s research community.
As the global research landscape continues to evolve, the insights provided by Elsevier through the SciVal tool offer valuable guidance for university leaders and policymakers. Together, we can recognize Scotland’s vital role in driving innovation, fostering inclusion, and advancing positive social change through research.
Elsevier and the Scottish Government welcome the use of this data. Please feel free to use the charts and download the data, ensuring to acknowledge Elsevier and Scottish Government as the sources when doing so. Thank you.
Explore SciVal Potential
SciVal offers a comprehensive solution to help research leaders and academic institutions navigate the complexities of the global research landscape.
Research Performance Evaluation: SciVal provides detailed insights into research outputs, enabling institutions to track and analyse their scholarly publications. With UK research witnessing a robust growth, SciVal allows you to benchmark your performance against peers and identify areas of strength and opportunity.
Collaboration Insights: The UK excels in international collaboration. SciVal’s tools enable you to discover potential collaborators worldwide, fostering partnerships that can enhance your institution’s research capabilities and visibility.
Impact Measurement: SciVal helps you measure the impact of your research initiatives. By analysing citations in patents and policy documents, you can understand how your work influences societal change and contributes to the Sustainable Development Goals.
Customized Reporting: SciVal’s user-friendly interface allows you to create tailored reports that highlight key metrics relevant to your institution’s goals. Whether you’re focusing on industry collaboration or assessing contributions to specific SDGs, SciVal equips you with the necessary data to make informed decisions.
Glossary
Academic-corporate collaboration
In Scopus, institutions are classified into one of four main sectors (Corporate, Academic, Government, and Medical sectors). In this report, academic–corporate collaboration is analysed via the proxy of papers whose authors’ affiliations belong to both the academic and corporate sectors.
Citation
A citation is a formal reference to earlier work made in a paper or patent, frequently to other papers. A citation is used to credit the originator of an idea or finding and is typically used to indicate that the earlier work supports the claims of the work citing it. The number of citations received by a paper from subsequently published papers can be used as a proxy of the quality or importance of the reported research.
International collaboration
International collaboration in this report is indicated by papers with at least two different countries listed in the authorship byline.
Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI)
Field-weighted citation impact (FWCI) is an indicator of mean citation impact and compares the actual number of citations received by a paper with the expected number of citations for papers of the same document type (article, review, or conference proceeding), publication year, and subject area. When the paper is classified in two or more subject areas, the harmonic mean of the actual and expected citation rates is used.
The indicator is therefore always defined with reference to a global baseline of 1.0 and intrinsically accounts for differences in citation accrual over time, differences in citation rates for different document types (e.g., reviews typically attract more citations than research articles), as well as subject specific differences in citation frequencies overall and over time and document types.
Relative Activity Index (RAI)
Relative Activity Index is defined as the share of an entity's publications in a subject relative to the global share of publications in the same subject. A value of 1.0 indicates that an entity's research activity in a field corresponds exactly with the global activity in that field; higher than 1.0 implies a greater emphasis while lower than 1.0 suggests a lesser focus.
Scholarly Output:
Scholarly Output in SciVal indicates the prolificacy of an entity: how many publications does this entity have indexed in Scopus? Scholarly Output is a:
- Productivity metric
- Snowball Metric
- “Power Metric”
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