site.bta Expenditure on Research, Development in 2013 up 5% Year-on-Year

Expenditure on Research, Development  in 2013 up 5% Year-on-Year

Sofia, October 15 (BTA) - In 2013, the total amount of
expenditure on research and development activity (R&D) was 521.2
million leva, which was 5.0 per cent more than the previous
year, preliminary data of the National Statistical Institute
released Wednesday show.

R&D intensity (R&D expenditure as a per cent of GDP) is one of
the key indicators for measuring the progress of the European
Union (EU) in achieving the targets of the new Europe 2020
strategy - a strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive
growth. Bulgaria's national objective is to reach 1.5 per cent
R&D intensity in 2020, the report says.

In 2013 R&D intensity in Bulgaria increased in comparison to the
previous year from 0.64 per cent in 2012 to 0.67 per cent in
2013, but it was still significantly below the average value of
this indicator for the EU-27 (2.08 per cent in 2012).

Nearly all of the growth in absolute value of the total R&D
expenditure in 2013 compared to the previous year was due to the
business enterprise sector where expenditure on R&D increased
by 17.9 million leva or 6.0 per cent.

The business enterprise sector was the largest of the four main
institutional sectors of R&D performance, accounting for 61.0
per cent of total R&D expenditure. It was followed by the
government sector and the higher education sector with shares of
29.7 per cent and 8.7 per cent respectively.

Foreign sources of funds continued to have the largest share in
R&D funding in Bulgaria - in 2013 this amounted to 48.3 per cent
of total R&D expenditure and increased by 2.0 percentage points
compared to 2012. This was mainly driven by the large number of
clinical trials which are carried out in Bulgaria but are
funded by foreign companies.

The next important sources of financing of R&D in 2013 were the
government sector with a share of 31.7 per cent - an increase of
0.2 percentage points compared to 2012 - and the business
enterprise sector, where a decrease of 1.4 percentage points was
reported, reaching a 19.4 per cent share of the total R&D
expenditure. In the structure of current R&D expenditure by type
of research in 2013, as in the previous year, the highest share
belonged to applied research - 74.0 per cent (356.3 million
leva), followed by experimental development and basic research -
with a share of 13.7 per cent (66.2 million leva) and 12.3 per
cent (59.4 million leva) respectively.

In 2013, the personnel employed with research and development
activity amounted to 17,544 persons (in full-time equivalent)
which was by 4.7 per cent more than in the previous year.