Research and development expenditure up by €1.5 million in 2014

During 2014, an increase in total expenditure on Research and Development (R&D) activities was registered at €1.5 million equivalent to 2.5% from 2013, according to data.

Figures show that the business enterprise sector contributed to 55.3% of total R&D, whereas the higher education and government sectors contributed 34.7% and 10% 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, NSO added.

Statistics show that 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, with labour costs representing 63.2% of total expenditure, whereas other recurrent expenditure and capital projects had a share of 18.9% and 17.9% respectively.

The NSO figures also sow that in 2014, the highest rate of R&D activity was recorded in engineering and technology which accounted for 35.7% of total expenditure, followed by natural sciences (24.2%) and medical sciences (20.5%). Year-on-year comparisons show that the highest increase was registered in engineering and technology by €4.5 million, but 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, with foreign funds for R&D reaching €12.7 million, or 21% of total funds.

Figures show that in 2014, 2,310 employees were engaged in R&D work, of whom 1,363 dedicated part of their time to R&D, with the highest R&D employment rate 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, NSO adds.

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.

The statistics showed that 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).