Aberdeen Research Lauded

How about a bit of good news for a change [Source:BBC]. Research is of course one of the most important roles of universities and as Prof Anton Muscatelli of Universities Scotland says that research covers a wide area:

"The results aren't just about the economy. The work these findings measure will result in major breakthroughs in health, energy, culture, information management, environmental technology and many other fields which will change people's lives for the better."

That's the very reason I love science and technology so much; they do so much to enrich the lives of human beings everywhere and constantly push back the boundary of knowledge.

The quality of research produced by Scottish universities has reached new heights, according to a study.

An independent review said the country's share of UK research rated as internationally excellent or better had gone up from 11.6% to 12.3% since 2001.

The results were revealed as part of the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE).

The RAE, carried out by peer review panels, is used to assess the standard of research for all subjects and allocate £1.5bn of university funding.

The study showed that every university in Scotland produced at least some research which was judged to be "world-leading".

The data grades university research using a star system, where four stars denotes research that is of world-leading quality.

A three-star grading denotes research that is internationally excellent, while two stars means the research is recognised internationally and one star denotes research that is nationally recognised.

The University of Edinburgh came top in Scotland with 63% of research activity given four or three stars.

It was rated best in the UK for medicine, veterinary sciences, IT and linguistics.
St Andrews, the University of Glasgow, University of Aberdeen and the University of Dundee completed the top five in Scotland.

In total, 1,000 Scottish researchers and their supporting teams were considered to be leading the world.

Edinburgh University principal, Prof Sir Timothy O'Shea, said: "Research at the University of Edinburgh is constantly expanding the depth of human knowledge and making an impact on the wider world, improving the quality of life for people in Scotland and further afield."

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