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Vienna, 22 April 2010 – EUR 7.805 bn will be spent on research and development (R&D) in Austria in 2010, according to the latest forecasts of Statistics Austria. The total amount of the Austrian Gross Expenditure on R&D (GERD) will rise by 3.4 per cent compared to 2009 and reach 2.76 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

43.3 per cent (approximately EUR 3.38 bn) of total R&D expenditure will be financed by private enterprises, which provide the largest part of all sources of funds. 41.2 per cent (around EUR 3.22 bn) of funds come from the public sector, 15.0 per cent will be financed from abroad and 0.4 per cent from the private non-profit sector (around EUR 34 mn). Funds from abroad (around EUR 1.17 bn) mainly flow from European enterprises of the same enterprise group as the domestic enterprise, having chosen Austria as an R&D location. Funding from abroad also includes payments from the European framework programmes for research, technological development and demonstration.

For comparative purposes, Gross Expenditures for R&D are expressed as a percentage of GDP ("research intensity"). In Austria, this indicator rose from 1.10 per cent in 1981 to 2.76 per cent in 2010, having exceeded the EU average considerably in the last years.

For more detailed information please refer to the German version.