Public R&D funding mobilises private spending, shows study
Businesses receiving support from the German Ministry of Education and Research invest more than one euro in research and development (R&D) for every euro they receive from the ministry. This is one of the findings of a study entitled 'Public support for research and innovation activities of businesses in Germany' carried out by the Centre for European economic research for the German ministry. One in six industrial companies receives public funding for research and innovation in Germany and a third of these participate in national research programmes. The study also showed that those businesses receiving support own more patents and are significantly more successful in getting their products onto the market. The study looked at businesses which had received funding for basic research and high risk projects. It discovered that more funding is now going to collaborative projects than was the case previously. While such projects were the exception twenty years ago, two thirds of funding now goes to collaborative projects, almost half of these being public-private partnerships. In fields such as production engineering, information technology and materials research, practically all projects are undertaken on a collaborative basis. The ministry is currently funding around 2,600 businesses with more than 500 million euro. The number of businesses receiving funding has more than doubled in the last 10 years, with small and medium sized enterprises making up 65 per cent of these newly funded companies.
Countries
Germany