What's in a title? Well, about £15,000 (US$23,000) a year if you're in charge of research and development at a UK biotechnology-based company, according to a new survey* of 54 UK companies from accountants, PriceWaterhouseCoopers (London). For "Heads of R&D", the median salary is around £59,000 (US$90,000) compared with nearly £75,000 (US$115,000) for the similar job of "chief science officer" (CSO). The differential between salaries in public and private companies is much more marked for heads of R&D than for CSOs: CSOs are only about 25% better off in public companies, but the median salary for a head of R&D is over 50% higher in a public company than in a private one.

*Leadership in Life Sciences - A Survey of Executive Remuneration is priced at £175 (US$240) from mossy.kennedy@uk.pwcglobal.com