EU governments spent over 67 billion euro on R&D in 2001, shows Eurostat
Recent statistics from the EU Statistical Office, Eurostat, show that EU Member State governments allocated 67.5 billion in budget appropriations and outlays to research and development (R&D) in 2001. This figure shows an increased interest, in nominal terms, among EU governments of more than 25 per cent over the last ten years. The increase in outlays, according to Eurostat, is due to significant efforts among certain Member States in the field of R&D: Spain increased their budget by over 10 per cent and Ireland by over 8 per cent. Similarly, an additional 6.8 per cent was granted to R&D overlays in Greece, while Portugal increased its spending in this sector by 9.6 per cent. However, statistics also show a decrease or levelling off in investment among larger Member States: While Germany slightly reduced its R&D spending, France's investment in this sector levelled off. The UK government, by contrast, slightly increased its R&D expenditure, but not by as much as smaller EU Member States. Eurostat found that government budget appropriations or outlays to R&D concentrated mainly on 'research financed from general university funds', which amounted to 31.8 per cent of total investment for 2001. Other areas of investment into research activities included defence and non-orientated research, the latter encompassing a variety of research fields ranging from mathematics and social sciences to medicine, agriculture and biology. Research into defence was given high priority by Spain, France and the UK. Government budget appropriations or outlays for R&D for EU Member States, Japan and the United States in 2001 were 0.75 0.64 and 0.80 per cent of GDP respectively, showing a convergence at international level.