Scotland's scientific research community is "more effective, stable and sustainable" as part of the UK, according to an analysis paper on independence.
The sector benefits from the best of both worlds under devolution, the UK Government has said.
Science and research has flourished with access to the combined funding, ideas and expertise of an "integrated and interdependent" community, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills claims.
At the same time the Scottish Parliament and Scottish Government can take policy decisions to further encourage research north of the Border, it states.
The paper, to be launched in Edinburgh, argues research collaboration between the UK and an independent Scotland would not be comparable.
An extract released by the UK Government states: "In the event of a vote in favour of independence, relationships between the continuing UK and an independent Scottish state would become international relationships.
"While there are examples of international research cooperation, these typically involve encouraging voluntary coordination of research programmes and limited joint funding initiatives as well as collaborations on specific projects and are not a replacement for national approaches."
Scottish institutions received 10.7% of all research grant funding from UK Research Councils in 2012-13 despite a UK population share of 8.4%, the paper says, while the UK is ranked second only to the US for world-class research.
Researchers in Scotland benefit from access to world-leading shared infrastructure and international facilities such as the European Centre for Nuclear Research and the European Southern Observatory, the paper argues. "Shared infrastructure allows for sharing of costs (improving efficiencies), expertise and larger scale investments than are possible through single funding streams," it states.
"In addition the interaction between experts at shared facilities, frequently across a range of disciplines, leads to greater research quality beyond any cost savings generated."
The Scottish Government dismissed the paper's claims as "nonsense". A spokesman for Education Secretary Mike Russell said: "Scotland has an unrivalled record of success in attracting research funding, reflecting the excellence and global reputation of our universities, and it is, frankly, nonsense to suggest that will not continue with independence." He added: "Our commitment to support our universities and to recognise the full impact of their research is widely acknowledged by the sector."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article