Prime location
More than 1 in 20 of all research moves within the United States for the period 2020–24 were from academia to companies, according to data from Sydney-based analytics company League of Scholars. Moves were calculated based on verified Google Scholar accounts affiliated with company e-mail domains, which means moves in countries where Google Scholar use is relatively low among corporate researchers, such as China, might be underrepresented.
Talent magnets
US companies lead as top destinations for academics moving to corporate research roles, based on 68,210 verified global cross-sector movements for 2020–24. Nearly 4% of these transitions were to Amazon and Google, with just over 2.5% specifically to Amazon. Samsung in South Korea and Huawei in China are the only non-US companies in this list.
High-flyers
Of the corporate-research output in the Nature Index, these are the five fastest-rising natural-sciences fields — measured by absolute change in article Count from 2020 to 2024. All fields sit within the top 10 overall.
Field guide
The top natural-sciences* fields in corporate-authored research in the Nature Index, as measured by article count, is shown for 2020–24. Physical chemistry is the fastest-rising field overall, increasing its Count by 171.29% for the period.
