Business sector leads increased R&D spending in 2011

During 2011, total expenditure on R&D activities amounted to €47.4 million, up by €5.4 million (+13 per cent) over 2010.

The Business Enterprise sector contributed 66.4 per cent to total R&D, whereas the Higher Education and Government sectors contributed 30 and 3.6 per cent respectively.

The added R&D expenditure was due to higher outlays on recurrent expenditure of €7.5 million, mainly as a result of higher labour costs and other recurrent expenditure in the Business Enterprise sector.

Conversely, lower outlays on capital expenditure by €2.1 million were recorded, mainly for the Higher Education sector. This was due to a large investment in 2010 by the University of Malta in instruments and equipment and in land and buildings, mainly financed through EU funds, which was not repeated in 2011.

Labour costs represented 64.3 per cent of total expenditure, whereas other recurrent expenditure and capital projects had a share of 29.6 per cent and 6.1 per cent respectively. In 2011, the highest rate of R&D activity was recorded in Engineering and Technology, accounting for 37.3 per cent of total expenditure, followed by Natural Sciences (21.7 per cent) and Medical Sciences (20.6 per cent).

Year-on-year comparisons show that all fields of science registered higher R&D expenditure, the major increases being recorded in Natural and Medical Sciences, by 18.8 per cent and 12.3 per cent respectively. The majority of R&D activity in Engineering and Technology, Natural Sciences and Medical Sciences was undertaken in Business Enterprises whereas research in relation to Social Sciences was mainly carried out by the Higher Education sector.

Each sector mostly funds its own research, supplemented by foreign funds, mainly consisting of foreign business enterprise funds for the Business Enterprise sector and EU funds for the Higher Education and Government sectors. Foreign funds for R&D reached €8 million, or 16.8 per cent of total funds.

In 2011, 2,161 employees were engaged in R&D work, of whom 1,226 dedicated part of their time to R&D. The highest R&D employment rate was registered in the Business Enterprise sector, at 1,126 employees, followed by the Higher Education sector, with 957 employees. Males were predominant among researchers and technicians.

In 2011, the highest employment activity in R&D was recorded in Engineering and Technology with 705 employees, followed by Natural Sciences and Social Sciences, with 513 and 341 employees respectively.

For 2012, the highest government budget outlays are recorded for R&D activities related to Health (€4.3 million), Industrial Production and Technology (€3.9 million) and Education (€3.8 million).