Methodological note. EIS: Direct government funding and government tax support for business R&D (percentage of GDP)

Public financing of R&D can take two forms: Direct funding for R&D through instruments such as grants and public procurement, and Indirect support through the tax system.

Direct funding is well captured in the official data on R&D expenditure by source of fund, differentiating between the following sources: Business enterprise sector, Government sector, Higher education sector, Private non-profit sector, and Abroad. Data on R&D funded by the Government sector are available from Eurostat (EU Member States and other European countries), OECD (OECD member states) and UIS (global coverage).

The indicator is obtained as a quotient.

Numerator:

Sum of GTARD and Direct funding of BERD.

Denominator:

Gross domestic product as defined in the European System of Accounts (ESA 2010), in national currency and current prices.