---
title: "UNESCO Science Report"
chunk: 2/2
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNESCO_Science_Report"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T03:27:52.718844+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

== Geographical coverage ==
Each edition has added geographic detail. The 2021 edition of the UNESCO Science Report provided data for 193 countries, with contributions from more than 70 authors from 52 countries. Published in June 2021, the seventh report in the series arrived at a crucial juncture, as countries were one-third of the way to the 2030 deadline for achieving their Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The report revealed that countries of all income levels shared a common agenda at this time for transitioning to digital and 'green' economies.
Themes covered in 2021 included our relationship with advanced technologies and the resources and energy they require, the  Fourth Industrial Revolution, the effect of Brexit on science and technology and the status of women in science and Industry 4.0. For the first time, an analysis of scientific output broke down the broad field of cross-cutting strategic technologies into its sub-fields, such as artificial intelligence and robotics, energy and nanotechnology. The report found that the COVID-19 pandemic had energized knowledge production systems. This dynamic built on the trend towards greater international scientific collaboration, which bodes well for tackling this and other global challenges such as climate change and biodiversity loss. However, sustainability science was not yet mainstream in academic publishing by 2021, according to the report's assessment of output on 56 topics of priority for reaching the Sustainable Development Goals, even though countries were investing more than before in green technologies.
The 2021 edition concluded that countries would need to invest more in research and innovation, if they were to succeed in their dual digital and green transition. More than 30 countries had already raised their research spending between 2014 and 2018, in line with their commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals. Despite this progress, eight out of ten countries still devoted less than 1% of GDP to research in 2018, according to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, perpetuating their dependence on foreign technologies.
The 2015 edition of the UNESCO Science Report had provided data on 189 countries and profiles of varying length of 140 countries. It contained three global chapters, 13 regional chapters and 11 chapters on individual countries, namely on: Brazil, Canada, China, India, Iran, Israel, Malaysia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Russian Federation and United States of America.
Themes covered  in 2015 include the recent reform of higher education in Afghanistan, West Africa's first Policy on Science and Technology (ECOPOST), science and technology in individual countries, including Brazil, Botswana, Kazakhstan, Malawi, Uganda, the United Republic of Tanzania, Zimbabwe and the Pacific Islands, biomedical research in the United States, challenges facing innovation in Malaysia, the anticipated effect of Brexit on science and technology, the status of female participation in scientific research and the development of South-South cooperation in science.
The UNESCO Science Report has evolved over the years and the report's geographical coverage has expanded. The 2015 edition of the UNESCO Science Report observed that, 'although most research and development is taking place in high-income countries, innovation is pervasive and is occurring in countries across the full spectrum of income levels'.
All the reports in the series are open access. They may be downloaded and purchased in various languages.

== External links ==
UNESCO Science Report official website

== Sources ==
 This article incorporates text from a free content work. Licensed under CC-BY-SA IGO 3.0. Text taken from UNESCO Science Report: Towards 2030​, UNESCO.  

== References ==