Thomson Reuters Study Suggests Global Imbalance in Diabetes Research Funding

New study identifies top 35 global research funders; U.S. National Institutes of Health leads by leaps and bounds

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Apr 23, 2014, 10:55 ET

PHILADELPHIA, April 23, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- The Intellectual Property & Science business of Thomson Reuters, the world's leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals, today released an analysis revealing the top 35 global funders of diabetes research based on funding acknowledgments in academic papers indexed within the Thomson Reuters Web of Science(SM), the premier scientific search and discovery platform and industry's authority in science, social science, and arts & humanities citation indices. The study suggests a regional imbalance between research funding, output and diabetes prevalence.

Thomson Reuters ScienceWatch.com analysts trace the funding of diabetes research and illustrate the discrepancy in where the largest populations are afflicted versus where research and funding is happening. More information at http://sciencewatch.com/articles/funding-diabetes-research . (PRNewsFoto/Thomson Reuters) (PRNewsFoto/Thomson Reuters)

Analysts of Thomson Reuters ScienceWatch, an open Web resource for science metrics and research performance evaluation, conducted a search of the Web of Science, identifying the U.S. National Institutes of Health as the leading funding organization with 13,436 acknowledgements, followed by the National Natural Science Institute of China with 3,354 acknowledgements, and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) with 2,547 acknowledgements. Other top 35 funders include government agencies such as the Canadian Institutes of Health Research; the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan; and the American Heart Association, as well as global pharmaceutical giants such as Novo Nordisk and Pfizer.

Several regions strongly impacted by the disease were notably absent from the list of the top 35 funders. According to the International Diabetes Federation, an estimated 20 million people live with the disease in Africa, and the continent has the highest global rate of mortality. While Africa-based researchers did contribute to 1,581 diabetes-related papers, no African organizations were listed among the top funding agencies. Regions of Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and India are similarly afflicted, but their research output and representation among the most-prolific funders is not yet commensurate with disease burden. For example, while 65 million of India's 1.2 billion people are affected by diabetes, no India-based organizations have yet emerged among the 35 most-prolific funders, although the Indian Council of Medical Research did register with 250 papers.

In addition to publishing the results of the study in Prominent Funders of Diabetes Research 2008-2013, the analysts also created the infographic "Financing the War Against the Global Diabetes Epidemic," to illustrate the regional imbalance between research funding, output and diabetes prevalence.

"With an estimated 382 million people living with diabetes worldwide, identifying the top 35 funders is a critical step in recognizing the surges and gaps in diabetes research and funding across the globe," said Gordon Macomber, managing director of Thomson Reuters Scientific and Scholarly Research. "The funding acknowledgements in papers focused on diabetes research indexed within the Web of Science have revealed that despite substantial burdens of diabetes in certain areas of the world, organizations from many of these regions have not yet emerged among the most prolific funders."

For a view into the full analysis, visit ScienceWatch.

Thomson Reuters ScienceWatch features data and commentary on the people, places and topics at the forefront of science today, illustrating the power of bibliometrics in providing a prospective view into the research landscape. As a part of the Thomson Reuters research analytics suite of solutions, ScienceWatch highlights the important role research evaluation and management play in supporting strategic decision making. Follow ScienceWatch on Twitter @TR_ScienceWatch.

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