Technology-based industries

The Airbus A380 has wings and engines manufactured in the UK.

The UK plays a leading part in the aerospace industry, with companies including Rolls-Royce playing a leading role in the aero-engine market; BAE Systems acting as Britain's largest and the Pentagon's sixth largest defence supplier, and large companies including GKN acting as major suppliers to the Airbus project.^[27] Two British-based companies, GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca, ranked in the top five pharmaceutical companies in the world by sales in 2009^[28] and UK companies have discovered and developed more leading medicines than any other country apart from the US.^[29] The UK remains a leading centre of automotive design and production, particularly of engines, and has around 2,600 component manufacturers.^[30]

Scientific research

Scientific research and development remains important in British universities, with many establishing science parks to facilitate production and co-operation with industry.^[31] Between 2004 and 2008 the UK produced 7% of the world's scientific research papers and had an 8% share of scientific citations, the third- and second-highest in the world (after the United States and China and the United States respectively).^[32] Scientific journals produced in the UK include Nature, the British Medical Journal and The Lancet.^[33]

Date: 2015-01-11; view: 1879