Press Release 22/11/2017
Expenditure on R&D in the Basque Country increased by 1.4% in 2016, after three consecutive years of decreases
Businesses (+2.3%) and the Administration (+5.2%) increased expenditure, but in the Higher Education sector there was a drop of 3.7%
In 2016 1,290.9 million euros were invested in Technological Development and Scientific Research (R&D) in the Basque Country, 1.4% up on the previous year, according to data provided by Eustat. This increase meant a return to positive growth values, after three consecutive years of decreases in expenditure.
The number of people employed full time was 17,898, which was a decrease of 1.8% compared with the previous year, whilst the number of full-time researchers, 11,916, also decreased by 1.4%.
In relation to GDP, expenditure on R&D in the Basque Country stood at 1.82% of GDP in 2016, after falling by 4 hundredths of a percentage point compared to the previous year. In comparison to the provisional data published by Eurostat, the Basque Country was 53% above Spain, which stood at 1.19%, and 10.3% below the EU-28 average that remained at 2.03%.
75.4% of expenditure on R&D in the Basque Country was implemented by the business sector, increasing its weight in total expenditure
In terms of who carried out expenditure on R&D, the majority, 75.4% (972.9 million euros) was implemented by companies, whereas 17.5% (226.0 million) corresponded to Higher Education and the remaining 7.1% (92.0 million) was carried out by various bodies dependent on the Administration. These figures, compared to the previous year, mean that in two sectors, Businesses and Higher Education, there was a decrease in spending of 2.3% and 5.2% respectively, whereas in Public Administration there was a rise of 3.7%.
From the point of view of those who finance R&D, the percentages of the previous year stayed largely the same. Private funding through companies, which spent 719.6 million euros on research, 1.5% more than in 2015 and 55.7% of total funding, remained the primary source of funding.
Public funding, with 432.2 million and an increase of 1.8% in the amount contributed, representing 33.5% of the total. Higher education, at 40.3 million, accounted for 3.1% of the funds, whereas 94.9 million, or 7.4%, came from abroad. Finally, 3.9 million, or 0.3%, came from various non-profit institutions.
The number of individuals employed full time was 17,898, which, when broken down by implementation sector, corresponds to 12,637 individuals in Businesses (70.6% of the total), 4,005 in Higher Education (22.4%) and 1,256 in Public Administration (7.0%).
35.6% of R&D personnel were women in 2016
6,375 individuals, 35.6% of R&D personnel in full-time work, were women, with the highest percentages of female presence in Public Administration and Higher Education with 55.0% and 50.1%, respectively, whilst for Business this percentage stood at 29.1%.
Compared to the previous year, the Business sector of the Basque Country, the sector that is making the greatest efforts in research tasks, registered an increase of seven tenths in its percentage of participation up to 75.4%, after four years of decreases. The Public Administration continues to increase its participation, two tenths this year, to stand at 7.1%. Finally, Higher Education, after several years of increasing its percentage, now drops the nine tenths gained by the two previous sectors, to stand at 17.5%.
For further information:
Eustat - Euskal Estatistika Erakundea / Basque Statistics Institute
C/ Donostia-San Sebastián, 1 01010 Vitoria-Gasteiz
Press Service: servicioprensa@eustat.es Tel: 945 01 75 62