Ireland 8th in world for materials research

Life

Ireland has been ranked 8th in the world for quality of research in Materials Science over the past decade, according to Thomson Reuters.

Ireland’s ranking of 8 out of 162 countries is ahead of larger nations such as France, Canada, Australia and Japan.

Materials Science is the study of the characteristics and uses of materials and includes Nanoscience, the study of materials at very tiny dimensions.

The data comes from the Essential Science Indicators database of Thomson Reuters and covered the period January 2000 to April 2010.

Of Ireland’s top 20 research papers, 14 came from researchers in Trinity College Dublin. Ireland’s top five and eight of the top 10 were from researchers in TCD’s dedicated nanoscience institute, CRANN, drawing on the skills and research excellence of the College’s Schools of Physics and Chemistry and the Trinity Centre for Bioengineering.

Two of the top five papers were by CRANN Principal Investigator, Prof Jonathan Coleman from the School of Physics, recently awarded a prestigious European Research Council Starter Grant.

Prof John Boland, director of CRANN, said: “Ireland’s ranking at 8th in the world is testament to the investment in Nanoscience over the past decade which has resulted in some of the world’s leading research taking place here.

“These rankings are critical as they increase Ireland’s competitiveness amongst research institutes around the world who compete for non-exchequer and corporate funding for research programmes.”

Dean of Research Dr David Lloyd added: “Nanoscience has been a research priority for Trinity College for many years now. Our investment in both physical infrastructure and building critical mass of investigators in our centres, schools and research institutes has paid dividend through the realisation of world-leading scientific output. These research activities are additionally shaping our wider educational curriculum, with new structured PhD programmes and undergraduate degrees courses in Nanoscience in Trinity advancing the next generation of Irish-based researchers in this domain.”

Ranking is by citations per paper among nations that published 1,000 or more papers during the period to reveal weighted impact. Essential Science Indicators lists nations ranked in the top 50% for a field over a given period based on total citations. In materials science, 81 nations are listed, meaning 162 countries were surveyed. Some 47 nations published at least 1,000 papers in this field during the period. The world average in citation impact was 6.49. Ireland is well above that average at 9.23.

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