Data are compiled by Statistics Norway and include data for 16 higher education units and 5 units belonging to the institute sector for the years 2013, 2017 and 2021.
2,876 people involved in bioscience R&D in 2021
In 2021, R&D personnel in the bioscience units of this evaluation amounted to 2,876 people. 1,591 in the higher education institutes and 1,285 in the institutes sector. There has been a growth in the number of R&D personnel from 2,516 in 2013. For the higher education sector, the growth was about 20 per cent, while the growth for the institute sector amounted to 7,5 per cent. The growth for the higher education sector was stronger from 2013 to 2017, than from 2017 to 2021. For the institute sector the growth was stronger in the last period.
Stable overall age structure, increase of personnel over 62 years
Among R&D personnel included in the evaluation the age structure has been rather stable from 2013 to 2021 with only a small increase. In the higher education sector, the average age was 42 years; for professors 58 years, for associated professors 49 years, for researchers/postdocs 39 years and for PhD-students 31 years. However, the share of R&D personnel over 62 years at professor level rose from 31 per cent in 2013 to 40 per cent in 202. In the institute sector the average age was 45.3 years in 2013 and 46.5 years in 2021, while the overall share of R&D personnel older than 62 years rose from 6 per cent to 12 per cent from 2013 to 2021.
High proportion of female researchers within biosciences
Overall gender balance has improved from 2013 to 2021 among units in the evaluation: In the higher education sector 49 per cent of the R&D personnel are women (44 per cent in 2013). At professor level there is still a skewed gender balance with only 27 per cent women. Gender balance is better among the evaluated units than for the total of natural sciences 21 per cent women. In the institute sector there are 40 per cent women (36 per cent in 2013).
More than 1 of 3 have a foreign doctoral degree in the higher education sector
Among the R&D personnel (without PhD-students) for the evaluated units 35 per cent had a foreign PhD-degree. Among the professors, 26 per cent had a foreign PhD-degree, and the proportion is even higher for associate professors and researchers and postdocs, 31 and 44 per cent respectively. In comparison, the share of foreign PhD-degrees in the higher education sector was 14 per cent and within natural sciences 26 per cent. In the institute sector, 27 per cent of the researchers had a foreign PhD-degree in 2021.