The European Commission has said that in relation to GDP, EU25 R&D expenditure stable at 1.9% in 2004. In real terms, EU25 R&D expenditure grew by 1.3% per year between 2001 and 2004.

In 2004 the EU25 spent nearly 200 billion euro on Research & Development (R&D). R&D intensity (i.e. expenditure as a percentage of GDP) in the EU25 stood at 1.90% compared to 1.92% in 2003. R&D intensity remained significantly lower in the EU25 than in other major economies. In 2003, R&D expenditure was 2.59% of GDP in the United States1, 3.15% in Japan, while it was 1.31% in China. R&D expenditure in the EU25 rose by 1.3% in real terms on average per year between 2001 and 2004, compared to -0.1% in the United States and +1.8% in Japan between 2001 and 2003.

In the UK, the annual average growth rate in real terms (%) for 2001-2004 was 2.2%.

In 2003 the business sector financed 54% of total EU25 R&D expenditure, while the shares of the business sector in the United States and Japan were 63% and 75% respectively.

The EU goals in Research and Development, as set by the Lisbon summit strategy, are to achieve by 2010 a R&D intensity of at least 3% for the EU as a whole, and to have two thirds of R&D expenditure financed by the business sector.

This information comes from Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities.

R&D intensity varies from 0.3% of GDP in Malta to 3.7% in Sweden.

In 2004, the highest R&D intensities among the Member States were registered in Sweden (3.74% of GDP) and Finland (3.51%), followed by Denmark (2.63%), Germany (2.49%), Austria (2.26%) and France (2.16%). The lowest intensities were found in Malta (0.29%), Cyprus (0.37%), Latvia (0.42%) and Slovakia (0.53%).

Annual average growth rates of R&D expenditure over the period 2001 to 2004 ranged from +16% in Estonia, +15% in Cyprus, +12% in Lithuania and +10% in Spain (between 2001 and 2003) to -4% in Portugal (2001-2003) and -2% in Belgium, Slovakia and Sweden.

Largest shares of R&D financed by business sector in Luxembourg, Finland, Germany and Sweden

The business sector finances the highest share of EU25 expenditure on R&D (54%), followed by the government sector (35%) and funding from abroad (9%). Among Member States, Luxembourg (80%) recorded the largest share of R&D expenditure financed by the business sector in 2003, followed by Finland (70%), Germany (66%), Sweden (65%), Denmark (61%) and Belgium (60%). Three Member States registered shares for the business sector of 20% or less: Lithuania (17%), Malta (19% in 2002) and Cyprus (20%).

published: 2005-12-07 06:30:00  http://www.publictechnology.net