Cyprus increased its research and development expenditure form 55 million euro in 2005 to 80 million in 2015, or from 0.37% to 0.46% of GDP, according to Eurostat, but still belongs to those (seven in 2015) who recorded a R&D intensity below 1%: Cyprus (0.46%), Romania (0.49%), Latvia (0.63%), Malta (0.77%), Croatia (0.85%), Bulgaria and Greece (both 0.96%).

 

Compared with 2005, R&D intensity increased in twenty-four Member States, decreased in Finland (from 3.33% in 2005 to 2.90% in 2015), Luxembourg (from 1.59% to 1.31%) and Sweden (from 3.39% to 3.26%), while it remained nearly stable in Croatia.

 

Meanwhile, in 2015, the highest R&D intensities were recorded in Sweden (3.26%), Austria (3.07%) and Denmark (3.03%), all with R&D expenditure above 3% of GDP, closely followed by Finland (2.90%) and Germany (2.87%). Belgium (2.45%), France (2.23%), Slovenia (2.21%) and the Netherlands (2.01%) registered R&D expenditure between 2.0% and 2.5% of GDP.

 

The main sector in which R&D was performed in 2015 was the business enterprise sector in all Member States, except Greece, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia (where the higher education sector was the dominant performing sector). The highest shares of R&D expenditure performed in the business sector were observed in Slovenia (76%), Bulgaria and Hungary (both 73%), Belgium and Ireland (both 72%, 2014 data for Ireland), Austria (71%), Sweden (70%), Germany (68%), Finland (67%), the United Kingdom (66%) and France (65%). Compared with 2005, the share of R&D conducted in the business enterprise sector increased in sixteen Member States, while it decreased in twelve.

 

For the government sector, the highest share was registered in Romania (38%), followed by Luxembourg (31%), Greece and Slovakia (both 28%), Latvia (26%), Croatia (25%) and Poland (24%). The highest shares of R&D conducted within the higher education sector were recorded in Lithuania (56%), Cyprus (54%) and Latvia (50%), ahead of Portugal (46%), Slovakia (44%), Estonia (41%) and Greece (38%).

 

In 2015, the Member States of the European Union (EU) spent all together almost €300 billion on Research & Development (R&D).

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