Skip to main content

Statistics on R&D Activities. 2023

Infographic

Infographic

(In catalan)

The internal research and development (R&D) expenditure in Catalonia amounted to 5,375.3 million euros in 2023, an increase of 11.3% compared to the previous year. This expenditure represents 1.81% of GDP. By sector of performance, 64.4% of the expenditure was incurred by the business sector (which is equivalent to 1.17% of GDP), followed by the higher education sector, which accounted for 19.1% of R&D expenditure (0.35% of GDP). The Public Administration sector accounted for 16.2% of expenditure (0.29% of GDP), while the private non-profit institutions (PNP) sector accounted for the remaining 0.4%.

Funding for internal R&D expenditure in Catalonia came mainly from the business sector (56.4%) and the Public Administration sector (28.3%). 11.5% of the expenditure was financed with funds from the rest of the world, 2.7% originated in the higher education sector, and the remaining 1.2% came from the PNPs. By sector of performance, Public Administration accounted for almost all of the funds to finance the internal R&D expenditure of the public administrations and the higher education sector (74.0% and 68.4%, respectively). In the business and PNPs sector, the funding for internal R&D expenditure came, for the most part, from the business sector (84.3% and 52.6%, respectively).

In terms of personnel, internal R&D activities in Catalonia employed a total of 60,423.1 people in full-time equivalent (FTE) employment, a figure that is 2.8% higher than in 2022. By occupation, 34,371.5 of those employed were researchers (56.9% of the total), 20,223.4 were technicians and the remaining 5,828.2 were internal R+D support staff. Of the total staff in FTE employment assigned to these R&D activities, 41.7% were women, and the proportion of women among researchers was 38.7%. By sector of performance, the highest percentages of female participation, which exceed half of the staff assigned to R&D, were in the sectors of PNPs and the Public Administration (61.6% and 52.8%, respectively). In the higher education and business sectors, this percentage was 48.6% and 33.6%, respectively.