EU R&D expenditure up by 6.9 pct at USD 347 bln

BRUSSELS, Oct 4 (KUNA) -- The European Union spent 331 billion euro (USD 347 billion) on research and development (R&D) in 2021, up 6.9 percent compared with the previous year.

Compared with 2011, there was a 45.0 percent increase, EU's statistical office, Eurostat, reported Wednesday.
In 2021, the business sector represented 65.95 percent of total R&D disbursed in that year, the equivalent of 218.32 billion euro (USD 229 billion), followed by the higher education sector with 72.03 billion euro (USD 75 billion), the government sector with 38.55 billion euro (USD 40 billion).
Among the EU countries, the highest R&D intensity in 2021 was recorded in Belgium (3.43 percent), Sweden (3.40 percent), Austria (3.26 percent) and Germany (3.13 percent).
However the EU's R&D expenditure relative to GDP continues to be below the corresponding ratios recorded in South Korea (4.93 percent), the United States (3.46 percent), Japan (3.34 percent) and China) (2.41 percent, 2020 data). (end) nk.gta.