JRPs are widely accepted as one of the success stories of British science funding. Over the ten years of the German programme, run in conjunction with the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst, some Pounds 8 million has been invested to support 6,000 visits to Germany and 5,000 to Britain. The results speak for themselves: 541 joint projects that have produced 2,600 scientific publications and Pounds 75.7 million-worth of research grants.
Andy Boddington, director of consultancy Evaluation Associates that is assessing JRPs, said his evaluation of the Japanese programme revealed each collaboration set up as a result of the funding had produced an average of 5.8 publications, two-thirds of which were in international peer-reviewed journals.
The research showed an even higher output for the Polish programme, with 7.4 publications per collaboration.