In 2006, 908 million euros were invested in Scientific Research and Technological Development activities (R&D) in the A.C. of the Basque Country, 10.2% more than the previous year, according to EUSTAT data.

The high nominal growth of Basque GDP meant that expenditure on R&D in relation to GDP remained stable from 2000 to 2005, but in 2006 this expenditure increased to 1.47% of GDP, three hundredths more than the previous year. This evolution meant that in 2006 the gap closed between the A.C. of the Basque Country and the European Union-27 average (1.84%), which in recent years has also stabilised at these levels, although in some years a fall was seen in its contribution. This rate in the A.C. of the Basque Country is also above the Spanish average (1.20%).

Graph 1: Internal expenditure on R&D in relation to GDP (%).

Source: A.C. of the Basque Country: EUSTAT. Spain-European Union: INE and EUROSTAT

It can be seen that there is a positive relation between the level of GDP per inhabitant and the percentage of GDP earmarked for R&D. The richest countries are those who make the greatest investment in R&D, which is to say those who surpass 2.5% of their GDP, being: Sweden, Finland, Japan, Switzerland, Iceland, USA and Germany. Among those making intermediate-level investment, from 1.5% to 2.5% of their GDP, are Austria, Denmark, France, Belgium, United Kingdom, Holland, Slovenia, Luxembourg, the Czech Republic and Norway. The lowest investments in R&D were in Estonia (1.41%), Ireland (1.32%), Spain (1.20%), Italy (1.10%), Hungary (1.00%), Croatia (0.87), Portugal (0.81%), Greece (0.63) and Poland (0.56%).

79.5% expenditure on R&D carried out in the A.C. of the Basque Country is executed in the company sector

As regards execution sectors, Basque companies made 79.5% of expenditure on R&D, 17.2% was devoted to university research and the remaining 3.3% was executed by various public organisations dependent on the Administration.

The company sector of the A.C. of the Basque Country, therefore, made the greatest investment, comparatively, in research work. There was an important difference as regards the Spanish average, where companies executed 55.6% of expenditure on R&D during 2006, higher Education 27.7% and the Public Administration 16.6%.

Focusing on industrial companies, most outstanding were the activities branches of Transport Material, Metal Articles and Machinery which jointly executed 20% of internal expenditure of the company sector. Turning to the services companies, those whose main activity is R&D services devoted most resources, coming to 38% of total internal business expenditure.

From the point of view of funding, the private sector, through companies, devoted 555 million euros to research, 61% of the total; public funding came to 35% and 3% of funds came from overseas. The A.C. of the Basque Country continued to be among the countries with the greatest private funding, on the same level as countries such as USA, Sweden and Germany.

Table 1: R&D Indicators

(*) F.T.E.: Full-time Equivalent

Source: A.C. of the Basque Country: EUSTAT. Spain: INE - European Union: EUROSTAT

Total full-time equivalent R&D personnel in the A.C. of the Basque Country came to 13,065 (4.5% more than in 2005), of which 62% were researchers (8,145). R&D in the A.C. of the Basque Country accounted for 13.2 per thousand employed workers (9.6 per thousand in the State as a whole), while researchers made up 8.3 per thousand (5.9 per thousand for the State).

The presence of women in R&D has tripled over the last decade

32% of R&D personnel were women and the highest percentages of female participation were seen in the Public Administration and in Higher Education, with 47% and 45% respectively, whereas in companies this percentage came to 27%.