How can we measure whether research investment delivers impact beyond academia? Drawing on the G20 research and innovation scorecard 2026, this blog explores how non-academic collaboration and citations provide insight into where research is applied and used outside academic settings. Research & development (R&D) investment across the G20 is vast. The United States and Mainland China each invest more than $1 trillion in R&D, while the European Union contributes more than $600 billion*. South Korea typically devotes around 5% of GDP to R&D, and economies such as the U.S., Japan, and Germany all exceed 3%. This makes the questions of return, relevance, and accountability increasingly important. How do we know whether research investment is delivering real-world impact? Publication output and citation impact remain essential measures of research strength, but they do not show whether knowledge is being used outside academia. If research is meant to support better health, cutting-edge technology or more inclusive growth, we also need indicators that show whether knowledge is being transferred beyond universities and research institutes to drive improvements in other sectors. The annual G20 research and innovation scorecard from the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) at Clarivate provides a comparative view of the research and...

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