The contribution of European community less favoured region research outputs to economic and social cohesion

Abstract

Data are presented on the scientific output from 1985–92 of the Less Favoured Regions (LFRs) of the European Community as recorded in theScience Citation Index. The use of postcodes makes it easier to identify papers from LFRs and they are now nearly universal (over 95%). LFR output has grown since 1985 from 5% to nearly 8% of the EC total, and there is much more trans-national co-authorship between ones in different countries though it is still at a low level. There is also increasing co-publication between scientists from LFRs and the rest of the EC (More Favoured Regions, MFRs), both within the same countries and trans-nationally. Selective retrieval of papers by their address keywords shows that the LFRs are relatively strong in the physical, rather than the life, sciences and that the major areas of growth in recent years have been engineering, earth/space sciences and physics.