Press Release 14/12/2017

STATISTICS FOR BIOTECHNOLOGY R&D. 2016

In 2016 Biotechnology activities accounted for 6.6% of R&D expenditure and 6.9% of personnel in the Basque Country

54.4% of expenditure was funded by the Public Administration and 33.6% by companies

In 2016, internal expenditure on R&D for activities related to Biotechnology increased to 84.7 million euros, and represented 6.6% of total internal expenditure on R&D according to Eustat data. Employed personnel stood at 1,913 individuals, which represents 1,235 people in Full-time Equivalent Jobs, and 6.9% of people employed in R&D.

Compared to the previous year both expenditure on Biotechnology R&D and employed personnel in Full-time Equivalent Jobs fell by 1.2% and 1.6% respectively. The number of researchers employed in Full-Time Equivalent Jobs, 965 individuals, also decreased by 1.3%.

As demonstrated in previous years, women are particularly noteworthy in this branch of R&D, as they represent 60.3% of the total full-time staff employed in Biotechnology in 2016.

A total of 97 entities carried out research activities in Biotechnology in 2016, of which 84 belonged to the Business Sector. Moreover, 66 of these 97 entities earmarked more than half their internal expenditure for Biotechnology R&D.

Businesses were responsible for 62% of internal expenditure

As in previous years, the Business Sector was the sector that presented the highest percentage of total internal expenditure on R&D activities relating to Biotechnology (61.6%), and this proportion was slightly lower than the same figure in 2015 (62.2%).

The other sectors, Higher Education (30.9%) and Public Administration (7.5%), carried out 38.4% of the remaining expenditure for 2016, a percentage that stood at 37.9% in 2015.

The public administration financed 54.4% of Biotechnology R&D activity

According to the origin of the funds, internal R&D activities relating to Biotechnology in 2016 were funded mainly by the Public Administration (54.4%) and Business (33.6%). The remainder was financed via funds originating from overseas (9.1%), from Higher Education (2.6%) and Private Non-Profit Institutions (0.3%).

As regards the areas of application for the products obtained as a result of Biotechnology research, Human Health (76.7%) and Nutrition (7.8%) both stood out. The remaining 15.5% was divided in similar percentages between the other areas - Environment, Industry, Animal Health & Aquaculture and Agriculture & Forestry Production.

Access to capital and time/cost stand out as the main obstacles for carrying out R&D activities in biotechnology

Finally, there were still obstacles that inhibited the advancement of research and marketing activities relating to biotechnology products and processes in 2016, especially Access to Capital for carrying out R&D and Time/Cost, both with 90.7%. In third place were regulatory requirements with 82.5%.

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