R&D Statistics

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04/04/12

R&D Statistics

Scientific research and development activities in Slovenia are relatively well developed compared to other countries in Central and Eastern Europe.

 

Figures for 2010 reveal that the percentage of research and development personnel of the total labour force was over the EU-27 average. By international standards, some sciences in Slovenia have reached the highest levels (e.g. biochemistry, physics, biology, pharmaceutics and mathematics). Additionally, the number of scientific publications per million people in Slovenia is above the average recorded in the EU.

 

According to the estimate, in 2010 the share of gross domestic expenditure on R&D (GERD) in GDP was 2.11%, which is 0.25 percentage point more than in 2009. Regarding investment in R&D, Slovenia is above EU average (2.0 per cent in 2010). A relatively higher share of GDP Slovenia invested in R&D also compared to other "new" EU-12 countries. Most of the latest Member States have relatively low R&D intensities, with only Slovenia exceeding 2%.

 

The main strengths of Slovenian research and development (R&D) are:

  • Relatively high quality scientific research and activities in the public sector, with well-established international cooperation.
  • Relatively young and fairly numerous researchers, with negligible brain drain.

 

R&D intensity (GERD as % of GDP), 2010

Source: Eurostat, 2012

R&D intensity in the new Member States is on average lower than in EU-27. Although R&D intensity is 2.1% for Slovenia, the rest of the new Member States returned figures below 2% in 2010.

 

GERD financed by business enterprise and by government as % of GDP, 2010

Source: Eurostat, 2012

For the countries with established high R&D intensities, growth was exclusively driven by the business sector (Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Germany and Austria), whereas in Finland, Germany, France and Slovenia, government-funding also played an important role.

 

Gross domestic expenditure on R&D (GERD) as a percentage of GDP, 2000-2010

Source: Eurostat, 2012

GERD, by source of funding, 2010

Source: Eurostat, 2012

Human resources for R&D

 

 

Researchers employed by main field of science, 2010

Source: Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia, 2012

According to the survey on research and development there were 16,243 persons employed in 2008; the number of persons employed increased to 17,045 in 2009 and to 17,972 persons employed in R&D in 2010.

 

European patents per million of population, 2009

Source: Eurostat, 2012

Most of the new EU Member States remain at a rather low level of national patenting, measured as EPO patent applications per million of inhabitants. Slovenia is an exception to the rule with 62 patent applications per million inhabitants in 2009.

 

The core part of the European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS) is the calculation of the Summary Innovation Index (SII), which makes it possible to divide the EU-27 Member States into four groups depending on their innovation performance:

  • Innovation leaders: Sweden, Finland, Germany and Denmark.
  • Innovation followers: Austria, Ireland, Luxembourg, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Cyprus, Estonia and Slovenia.
  • Moderate innovators:  Czech Republic, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Italy, Malta, Hungary, slovakia and Poland.
  • Modest Innovators:  Lithuania, Romania, Latvia and Bulgaria.

Source: Innovation Union Scoreboard, 2011