In 2007, 1090 million euros were invested in Scientific Research and Technological Development (R&D) in the A. C. of the Basque Country, which was up by 20% on the previous year, according to Eustat data. Current expenditure increased by 14%, but capital costs (investment), with a 57% increase on the previous year, contributed to the significant growth in spending on R&D, as it rose from 135 million to 212 million euros in 2007.

In terms of the GDP of the A.C. of the Basque Country, spending on R&D in 2007 increased to 1.65% of the GDP, eighteen hundredths more than in the previous year, which broke the stable trend of this indicator in recent years. This evolution meant that in 2007 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. This rate in the A.C. of the Basque Country is also above the Spanish average for 2006 (1.20%).

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

Source: A.C. of the Basque Country: EUSTAT. Spain-European Commission: 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, which are: Sweden, Finland, Japan, Switzerland, Iceland, USA, Germany and Austria. Among those making intermediate-level investment, which now include the A.C. of the Basque Country, from 1.5% to 2.5% of their GDP, are Denmark, France, Belgium, United Kingdom, Holland, Slovenia, the Czech Republic and Norway. The lowest investments in R&D were in Luxemburg (1.47), Irlande (1.35%), Spain (1.20%), Estonia (1.14%), Italy (1,09%), Hungary (1.00%), Croatia (0.87), Portugal (0.83%), Greece (0.57) and Poland (0.56%).

81.3% expenditure on R&D carried out in the A.C. of the Basque Country is in the company sector

By sectors, Basque companies spent 81.3% on R&D, 15.2% was devoted to university research and the remaining 3.5% was 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 accounted for 55.7% of expenditure on R&D, Higher Education 27.7% and the Public Administration 16.6%.

Focusing on industrial companies, special mention should be made of the branches of Transport Material, Machinery and Metal Articles, which jointly accounted for 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 42% of total internal business expenditure

From the point of view of funding, the private sector, through companies, devoted 643 million euros to research, 59% of the total; public funding came to 38% 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 and above the European average.

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 14,435 (410.5% more than in 2005), of which 64% were researchers (9220). R&D in the A.C. of the Basque Country accounted for 14.2 per thousand employed workers (9.3 per thousand in Spain as a whole), while researchers made up 9.1 per thousand (5.7 per thousand for Spain in 2006).

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

Thirty-three per cent of R&D personnel were women and the highest percentages of female participation were seen in the Public Administration and in Higher Education, with 49% and 45% respectively, whereas in companies this percentage came to 29%.