In 2014, total expenditure on research and development amounted to €60.5 million, or 0.75 per cent of GDP, the National Statistics Office said today.

An increase in total expenditure on Research and Development (R&D) activities was registered by €1.5 million equivalent to 2.5 per cent from 2013. The Business Enterprise sector contributed 55.3 per cent to total R&D, whereas the Higher Education and Government sectors contributed 34.7 and 10.0 per cent respectively.

The added R&D expenditure was triggered by higher outlays on recurrent expenditure of €4.7 million, mainly as a result of higher labour costs in the Business Enterprise and Higher Education sectors.

On the other hand, outlays on capital expenditure decreased by €3.2 million mainly due to a decline in land and buildings in the Higher Education sector. Labour costs represented 63.2 per cent of total expenditure, whereas other recurrent expenditure and capital projects had a share of 18.9 per cent and 17.9 per cent respectively.

In 2014, the highest rate of R&D activity was recorded in Engineering and Technology which accounted for 35.7 per cent of total expenditure, followed by Natural Sciences (24.2 per cent) and Medical Sciences (20.5 per cent).

Year-on-year comparisons show that the highest increase was registered in Engineering and Technology by €4.5 million. Conversely, Medical Sciences went down by €2.0 million.

The majority of R&D activity in Engineering and Technology and Natural Sciences was undertaken in business enterprises whereas research in relation to Medical Sciences was mainly carried out by the Government Sector.

Each sector mostly funds its own research, supplemented by foreign funds, mainly foreign business enterprise funds for the Business Enterprise sector, general university funds for the Higher Education sector and EU funds for the Government sector. Foreign funds for R&D reached €12.7 million, or 21.0 per cent of total funds.

In 2014, 2,310 employees were engaged in R&D work, of whom 1,363 dedicated part of their time to R&D. The highest R&D employment rate was registered in the Higher Education sector, at 1,181 employees, followed by the Business Enterprise sector, with 1,077 employees. Male employment was predominant among researchers and technicians.

As regards employment by major field of science, in 2014 the highest employment activity in R&D was recorded in Engineering and Technology with 687 employees, followed by Natural Sciences and Social Sciences, with 653 and 358 employees respectively.

In 2015, the highest outlays on the Government Budget Appropriations or Outlays for R&D (GBAORD) were recorded in the socio-economic activities related to Health (€6.5 million), Industrial Production and Technology (€4.9 million) and Culture, Recreation, Religion and Media (€4.2 million).

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