R&D spending accounts for 0.47 pct of GDP in 2020

R&D expenditures accounted for 0.47 pct of GDP in 2020, of which 0.28 pct for the private sector and 0.19 pct for the public sector, according to data centralized by the National Institute of Statistics (INS).

Last year, an amount of RON 4.964 billion was spent on the four performance sectors of the research and development activity, of which RON 4.643 billion current expenses (93.5 pct) and RON 320.9 million capital expenditures (respectively 6.5 pct).

The spending on applied research represented 61.2 pct of the total expenditures for the research and development activity, registering a decrease of 2.7 pct, compared to the expenses in 2019. Expenditures on fundamental research had a level close in percentage in total spending for research and development activity, compared to 2019, respectively 18.8 pct, while expenditures on experimental development increased by 2.6 pct (from 17.4 pct to 20 pct).

Depending on the sources of financing of the total R&D expenditures, in 2020, the sources provided by the enterprises had the highest share, respectively 52.8 pct, followed by public funds (including the general university public funds), respectively 32.9 pct.

Within the performance sectors, the largest amounts of public funds were received by units in the government sector (74.5 pct of the total sector), followed by units in the higher education sector (66.8 pct of the total sector).

The sources of financing for the R&D activity abroad were mostly directed to the units in the business environment sector (50.1 pct), the government sector (30.2 pct) and the higher education sector (18.8 pct).

As of December 31, 2020, 45,304 salaried employees worked in research and development, of whom 21,216 were women, namely 46.8 pct.

By level of professional training, 86.9 pct of the number of employees who worked in research and development at the end of 2020 had higher education (39,349 employees), and 13.1 pct had another level of training, excluding higher education (5,955 employees).

In 2020, 18,756 people with doctoral and postdoctoral studies were involved in research and development, of whom 9,265 were women. Depending on the hours actually worked, 73.3 pct of the salaried employees who carried out research and development activity in 2020, worked full time.

In 2020, by categories of occupations, the largest share of employees in research and development was represented by researchers, 62 pct of the total, respectively 28,090 employees, up by 922, compared to 2019.