Press Release 17/11/2023
STATISTICS ON SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT - R&D ACTIVITIES 2022
Expenditure on R&D in the Basque Country once again exceeded the historic maximum, increasing by 9% and reaching 1,795 million euros in 2022
The Basque Autonomous Administration funded 26.6% of R&D undertaken in the Basque Country and 77% of expenditure on internal R&D was carried out by the corporate sector
Expenditure on internal R&D (Research and Technological Development) in 2022 reached a total of 1,795 million euros in the Basque Country, a record figure in R&D expenditure according to Eustat data. This figure was reached following an increase of 9% and represents expenditure of 148 million more than in the previous year. Expenditure on R&D activities as a share of GDP represented 2.08% in 2022.
Internal R&D provided employment for 21,746 people in Full-Time Equivalent Jobs in 2022, following a rise of 4.5% in respect of the previous year. Likewise, the number of research staff, 15,230 people in Full-Time Equivalent Jobs, also increased by 6.0%. As was the case with expenditure, both figures (people in Full-Time Equivalent Jobs and research staff) constituted record figures.
At the provincial level, in 2022, 45.6% of total expenditure on internal R&D in the Basque Country was carried out in Bizkaia, 43.3% in Gipuzkoa and 11.1% in Álava. In relation to the GDP of each province, it should be pointed out that this expenditure represented 2.75% of GDP in Gipuzkoa, 1.83% in Bizkaia and 1.49% in Álava.
77.1% of expenditure on internal R&D in the Basque Country was implemented by the corporate sector
In terms of the sector that carried out the internal R&D expenditure, the majority, 77.1% (1,384.5 million euros), was implemented by Companies, whereas 16.4% (294.3 million) corresponded to Higher Education and the remaining 6.5% (115.9 million) was carried out by various Bodies dependent on the Administration. In relation to 2021, Companies increased their R&D expenditure by 8.6%, Bodies dependent on the Administration by 10.7% and Higher Education by 10.2%.
Expenditure on R+D by sector according to origin of funds (thousand euro). 2022
| | Total | Administration | Higher education teaching | Enterprises | PIWLE | Foreign |
| Total | 1.794.704 | 608.467 | 30.491 | 1.003.627 | 7.949 | 144.170 |
| Companies and IPSLF | 1.384.508 | 288.496 | 231 | 979.773 | 512 | 115.496 |
| Public Administration | 115.876 | 103.707 | 135 | 4.892 | 3.134 | 4.007 |
| Higher Education Sector | 294.320 | 216.264 | 30.125 | 18.962 | 4.302 | 24.667 |
I.P.S.F.L.=Instituciones p.s.f.l = Private Institutions without Lucrative Ends
Date November 17, 2023
Source: Eustat. Statistics on scientific research and technological development activities-R&D
In terms of funding internal R&D expenditure, Companies spent 1,004 million euros on research, 7.6% more than in 2021. This figure accounts for 55.9% of total funding, although their share of total funding was down 0.8 percentage points in respect of the previous year. Even so, companies remained the primary source of funding. Public funding contributed 608 million, following an increase of 12.4% compared to the previous year, and represented 33.9% of total expenditure on internal R&D, which increased its share by 1.0 percentage point.
The remaining funding sources corresponded to the Higher Education sector, 30.5 million; Private Non-Profit Institutions, 7.9 million; and Overseas, 144.2 million. These contributions led to variations in respect of the previous year’s figures of -10.8%, 6.6% and 10.1%, respectively.
As regards the origin of public funding, the contribution from the Autonomous Administration predominated (476.7 million), up 10.0% on the previous year, representing 78.3% of total funding by the public administration in 2022 and 26.6% of total R&D carried out in the Basque Country.
For its part, the Central Administration (104.7 million) increased its funding by 19.9% in 2022, bringing its share to 17.2% of total funding by the Public Administrations. Finally, the provincial and local administrations’ share (27.1 million) stood at 4.5%, their contribution also increasing in relation to the previous year, up 31.8%.
There were 21,746 people in full-time employment, who corresponded to the following implementation sectors: 15,422 people were employed in Companies (70.9% of the total), 4,979 in Higher Education (22.9%) and 1,345 in Public Administration (6.2%). As regards their professional category, the number of research staff rose to 15,230 people, following growth of 6.0%; technical staff accounted for 4,817 people, following a decrease of 3.1%; and, lastly, there were 1,699 people employed as auxiliary staff, 15.9% more than the year before.
36.9% of R&D personnel were women in 2022
In 2022, 36.9% of all R&D personnel in full-time employment were women. There was a total of 8,033 women working in R&D, following an increase of 6.6% in relation to 2021. Their weight in the total number of personnel rose by seven tenths of a point and, from a longer-term perspective, their weight increased by 3.5 percentage points in relation to 2010 and as much as 10.3 points compared to 2000.
Considering the sector implementing R&D, it can be observed that there were higher numbers of women in the Corporate and Higher Education sectors: 4,765 and 2,515 women, respectively, compared to 752 women in the Public Administration sector. However, in relative terms, in the Public Administration women represented 55.9% of all staff, compared to 50.5% in Higher Education and 30.9% in the Corporate sector.
Evolution of R+D and personnel expenditure (FTE) in the Basque Country. 2010-2022
| | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
| Expenditure on R&D | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Total (million euro) | 1.360,3 | 1.366,2 | 1.372,9 | 1.316,8 | 1.289,8 | 1.273,2 | 1.290,9 | 1.363,2 | 1.423,4 | 1.481,4 | 1.490,0 | 1.646,9 | 1.794,7 |
| Annual increase (%) | 6,2 | 0,4 | 0,5 | -4,1 | -2,1 | -1,3 | 1,4 | 5,6 | 4,4 | 4,1 | 0,6 | 10,5 | 9,0 |
| In relation to GDP (%) | 2,04 | 2,04 | 2,09 | 2,03 | 1,94 | 1,86 | 1,81 | 1,85 | 1,85 | 1,86 | 2,07 | 2,11 | 2,08(p) |
| Personnel (F.T.E.) | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Total | 17.532 | 17.879 | 18.682 | 18.280 | 18.535 | 18.217 | 17.898 | 18.577 | 19.274 | 19.619 | 19.511 | 20.804 | 21.746 |
| Annual increase | 5,0 | 2,0 | 4,5 | -2,2 | 1,4 | -1,7 | -1,8 | 3,8 | 3,8 | 1,8 | -0,5 | 6,6 | 4,5 |
| On full-time equivalent jobs (‰) | 18,8 | 19,3 | 20,9 | 21,1 | 21,3 | 20,3 | 19,5 | 19,8 | 20,1 | 20,1 | 21,3 | 22,1 | 22,5(p) |
| Research personnel (FTE) | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Total | 11.071 | 11.283 | 11.772 | 11.959 | 12.030 | 12.089 | 11.916 | 12.608 | 13.165 | 13.520 | 13.629 | 14.367 | 15.230 |
| Annual increase | 6,6 | 1,9 | 4,3 | 1,6 | 0,6 | 0,5 | -1,4 | 5,8 | 4,4 | 2,7 | 0,8 | 5,4 | 6,0 |
| On full-time equivalent jobs (‰) | 11,9 | 12,2 | 13,2 | 13,8 | 13,8 | 13,4 | 13,0 | 13,4 | 13,7 | 13,9 | 14,9 | 15,3 | 15,8(p) |
(p)Provisional data
F.T.E.= full time equivalent
Date November 17, 2023
Source: Eustat. Statistics on scientific research and technological development activities-R&D
Note: Eustat would like to thank all the companies and institutions that have collaborated in preparing this survey, the information for which was gathered between April and October 2023, for their efforts. Without their collaboration it would not have been possible.
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