A comparison of Australian and European Union research performance profiles

Abstract

"Governments worldwide face the challenge of how best to prioritise their international science and innovation (S&I) cooperation activities. This involves balancing the intrinsic benefits that may arise from international S&I cooperation with extrinsic considerations – diplomacy, trade, national security etc. The interplay of these intrinsic and extrinsic considerations means that complex and often ambiguous tradeoffs need to be addressed by policymakers. In some cases international S&I cooperation priorities will reflect extrinsic diplomatic and geopolitical goals. In other cases the objectives will relate more closely to balancing the costs, risks and benefits of particular bilateral and multilateral S&I cooperation opportunities. Given the limited financial resources available to support international S&I cooperation it is useful for policymakers to have access to appropriate decision-support tools and information. This should help to avoid wasteful resource allocations caused by a lack of access to relevant information.This paper seeks to contribute to the evolving policy framework in this area by considering ways of characterising and mapping international imbalances in research performance." - page 2