This incident highlights a profound shift in global academic influence and reflects China's growing capacity to attract high-caliber talent from Europe, a point underscored in The Economist, which recently reported that: "China is now a leading scientific power. Its scientists produce some of the world’s best research...They contribute to more papers in prestigious journals than their colleagues from America and the European Union and they produce more work that is highly cited"
Such developments are cause for significant concern regarding Europe’s future. The recently published Draghi report of October 9 emphasizes the gravity of the situation, pointing to what it describes as an existential threat to European competitiveness and leadership. This latest instance—where a prosperous and historically influential nation like France is unable to retain one of its most distinguished scientists—serves as a stark reminder of this challenge.
PS – As former Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta aptly observed on October 14, “If Europe does not act, we will simply end up debating whether we want to be a Chinese or an American colony.”
From: F. Pacheco Torgal
Sent: October 11, 2024, 07:06
To: eng; eng-researchers
Subject: The Definition of “Outstanding Achievement” According to the Largest Research Center in Materials Science and Engineering
Regarding the previous post on the top 100 researchers ranked in the Stanford listing (https://19-pacheco-torgal-19.blogspot.com/2024/09/portugal-os-100-investigadores-mais.html), two days ago, a colleague from a northern Portuguese university suggested a finer analysis by subfield, as per the email below (I have omitted his identity).
In response, I explained that I couldn't take on this task due to lack of time, but I told him this analysis should ideally be conducted by the DGEEC or by each university, as a way to assess the international influence of their researchers, which is an efficient method to gauge these universities’ ability to “generating, retaining, or attracting talent,” – something Portugal desperately needs. See, for instance, the August 5 news on the AICEP website titled “Brain Drain Undermines Development in Northern Portugal,” although every year our country passively watches talent exit to nations highly competitive in attracting talent, as illustrated by the Global Talent Competitiveness Index 2023.
In fact, a well-known research unit at the University of Aveiro, which describes itself as “the largest Portuguese research center in materials science and engineering,” did exactly this by tallying how many of its researchers ranked in the top five of each subfield, classifying this performance as an Outstanding Achievement.
