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Bill Magee
Scotland's Prime Position as Global R&D Partner Under Threat Following US Political Moves


Scottish Universities have been put on high-alert following an influential Massachusetts Institute of Technology report warning the Trump political regime - spearheaded by Musk's DOGE - is "dismantling" scientific leadership with global ramifications the outcome.

Scotland's science and technology-based partnership-based expertise is world renowned in terms of international collaborative work that knows no bounds. None more so than both sides of the Pond with combined R&D success responsible for innumerable groundbreaking developments.

Now however, following the current US administration's repressive regime the threat is very real, in terms of drug development in advanced stage aimed at curing many of the planet's ills. Including one day, hopefully sooner than we think, cancer.

Such uncertainty comes at a lousy time, to put it mildly. UWS is one of a number of Scottish institutions recording a deterioration in financial accounts 2024, alongside St Andrews, Glasgow and Napier universities; redundancies have not been ruled out at Dundee, Edinburgh and Robert Gordon's..

Universities Scotland has ranked Edinburgh, Glasgow, St Andrews and Aberdeen in the world's top 200, according to Times Higher Education rankings. It means the quartet are amongst the top one per cent of the planet's universities.

Lab Experiment A scienist using a pipette with a microtiter plate and a petri dish

MIT Technology Review pulls no digital punches

Research in Turn Fuels Innovation and Economy

Ever since World War 11 the US has been the global leader in science and technology, and benefited immensely from it.

MIT maintains "research fuels American innovation and the economy in turn." Scientists around the world want to study in the US and collaborate with American scientists to produce more of that research.

Such international collaborations "play a crucial role in American soft power and diplomacy", and products Americans can buy, the drugs they have access to, the diseases they're at risk of catching.

They're all directly related to the strength of research and its connections to the world's scientists. "That scientific is now being dismantled." This is according to in excess of ten federal workers who've spoken to MIT Technology Review.

Adding: "As the Trump administration - spearheaded by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) - slashes personnel, programs and agencies."

MIT reveals these workers come from several agencies including the Departments of State, Defense and Commerce, the US Agency for International Developoment, and the National Science Foundation.

Photo businessman holding a cloud of science icon
US scientific research programs "irreparable damage" worries

A Century of Science Ecosystem Under Threat

Collectively, they warn that dismantling the behind-the-scenes scientific research programs that backstop American life could lead to long-lasting "perhaps irreparable" damage to everything..

From health care to the public's access to next-generation consumer technologies: "The US took nearly a century to craft its rich scientific ecosystem; if the unraveling that has taken place over the past month continues, Americans will feel the effects for decades to come."

World-class research also represents the backstop of Scots university motivation across the board. Latest Scottish Government figures reveal Gross Expenditure on R&D (GERD) at £4.9 billion, representing 6.9 per cent of UK total spend.

In turn, a London Economics report found Scotland's universities had an economic impact of £17.1bn - a benefit-to-cost ratio of 10.8 to 1, the highest in the UK.

Scottish North American Business Council statistics reveal America continues to be Scotland's top international trading partner with around 17 per cent of all exports entering the US worth £5.5bn.

Scotland's International Education Strategy sets out a framework to cement the country's reputation as world leader in education, R&D exchange, working with universities and colleges to attract students and staff from outside the UK.

R&D Bottom Line.

It remains the case Scotland's world-class university research and its key outputs of new knowledge and insights are fundamental in finding solutions to the most pressing global challenges.

How? By delivering the innovations tackling the likes of climate change, food insecurity, improving health plus enabling us all to remain at the forefront of new technologies across a broad range of sectors.

Unfortunately, under the current US political regime Scotland's prime position as global research partner has been thrown into disarray.

Time for a wee dose of scientifically-grounded soft diplomacy?


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