The Alto Deba district – comprising the municipalities of Antzuola, Aretxabaleta, Elgeta, Eskoriatza, Arrasate/Mondragón, Oñate, Leintz-Gatzaga and Bergara- headed the list of districts with the greatest investment in R&D. The district invested 4.42% of its GDPin 2007, according to Eustat data.

Six districts exceeded the average expenditure on R&D in terms of the GDP in the Basque Country (1.65%). Four districts are in Gipuzkoa: the aforementioned Alto Deba (4.42%), Bajo Deba (2.60%), Donostia-San Sebastián (2.12%) and Goierrri (1.98%); the other two are in the province of Bizkaia: Duranguesado (1.82%) and Gernika- Bermeo (1.81%).

Graph 1: Internal expenditure on R&D in relation to GDP 2007 (%).

Source: Eustat and Eurostat

76% of the total expenditure on R&D of the Basque Country was in four districts

In 2007, a total of 1090 million euros were invested in Scientific Research and Technological Development (R&D) in the Basque Country. The districts of Gran Bilbao, Donostia-San Sebastian, Llanada Alavesa and Alto Deba invested over 100 million euros in %&D and overall accounted for 76% of the expenditure of the Basque Country. As far as total full-time equivalent R&D personnel was concerned, these districts accounted for 79% of the researchers, technicians and assistant involved in research work.

Graph 2: Distribution of internal expenditure on R&D. The Basque Country. 2007(millions €)

Source: EUSTAT

The province of Álava had the most concentrated R&D resources in one single district. In fact, 84% of the total expenditure on research in Álava occurred in the Llanada Alavese, with internal expenditure of 118 million euros.

In Bizkaia, the Gran Bilbao district stood out with expenditure of 398 million euros, which accounted for 77% of the investment in R&D. The Duranguesado, with 64 million euros assigned to research, accounted for 13% of investment in R&D in Bizkaia.

Gipuzkoa was the province with the largest geographical distribution in terms of resources allocated to R&D. Even though the Donostia-San Sebastián region, with 207 million euros assigned to research, accounts for 46% of Gipuzkoa, the Alto Deba district, which invested 116 million euros, stands out and accounted for 26% of the expenditure in Gipuzkoa. The Bajo Deba and Goierri districts accounted for 10% of the provincial expenditure, respectively.

Gernika-Bermeo, Donostia-San Sebastián and Gran Bilbao were the districts that received greatest public funding. They all exceeded the average for the Basque Country (37.6%), mainly due to the significant presence of technological centres.

All the districts allocated the majority of their resources to Engineering and Technology, except for Gernika-Bermeo and Montaña Alavesa, where the main investment areas were Agricultural Sciences (including fisheries) and Medical Sciences, respectively.

With regard to the number of women involved in research work, the average for the Basque Country (33%) was exceed in Montaña Alavesa, Gernika-Bermeo, Gran Bilbao, Donostia-San Sebastián, Llanada Alavesa and Markina-Ondarroa.