News

Gipuzkoa is the province that made the highest investment in R&' || 'amp;D (2.23%), measured in GDP terms, which is higher than the EU-27 average (1.90%) for the second year running, according to Eustat data. This indicator was 1.73% in Bizkaia and 1.46% in Alava, with all three provinces being over the average for Spain (1.35%).

In 2008, 1,264 million euros (1.85% of the GDP) were invested in Scientific Research and Technological Development (R&' || 'amp;D) in the Basque Country. Bizkaia accounted for 598 million euros, 47% of the total expenditure of the Basque Country, while Gipuzkoa spent 501 million (40%) and Álava 165 million (13%).

The increase in internal expenditure on R&' || 'amp;D with respect to 2007 was 16% for the Basque Country as a whole. Bizkaia and Álava, with increases of 19% and 18% respectively, exceeded this average, while Gipuzkoa increased its expenditure by 12%.

If only capital expenditure (investment in land, buildings, equipment and instruments) are considered, 231 million euros were invested in 2008, which was an average increase of 8% on the previous year, but which was distributed unevenly in the three provinces: It rose by 16% in Bizkaia, by 13% in Álava and by 1% in Gipuzkoa.

With regards to the implementation sector, the three provinces had the same expenditure per sectors as in 2007. Even though the Companies sector was particularly noteworthy, due to the greatest implementation percentage of the expenditure, followed by the University sector and then the Public Administration sector to a lesser degree, each province had its own specific characteristics.

In Alava, expenditure in the Public Administration sector was greater and accounted for 8.3% of the total expenditure of this province. However, this expenditure was half that in Bizkaia (4.7%) and was only 1.7% in Gipuzkoa.

In Gipuzkoa, the Companies sector implemented 87.1% of the expenditure, 79% in Álava, while Bizkaia had the lowest percentage (76.6%).

Special mention should be made of the spending by the University in Bizkaia, which accounts for 18.7% of the expenditure in the province. However, the percentage of university spending fell slightly in all three provinces, particularly in Álava where it fell from 13.7% in 2007 to 12.6% in 2008.

As in previous years, Engineering and Technology continued to be the scientific discipline with the greatest expenditure and which employed the most people in all three provinces. This percentage ranged from 77% in Gipuzkoa to 68% in Bizkaia and Álava.

As far as women''s participation in R&' || 'amp;D activities was concerned, 30% of the total employees were women in Gipuzkoa, 33% in Álava and 36% in Bizkaia.

The importance of the funding by the companies themselves (56%), in terms of private resources allocated to research, was over the State (45%) and European (55%) averages in the case of all three provinces. It came to 60.4% in Álava, while it was 55 and 55.9% in Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa, respectively.

30% of expenditure on R&' || 'amp;D in the Companies sector is in companies with under 50 employees and 37% is by research companies

Companies with less than 50 employees executed 30% of the expenditure on R&' || 'amp;D in the Companies sector. This percentage came to 44% in Álava, which was also up 4 percentage points on 2007. In Gipuzkoa, these companies accounted for 27%, down 5 percentage points on2007, while in Bizkaia, it remained practically the same from one year to another (29%).

The internal expenditure on R&' || 'amp;D of the companies whose main activity are R&' || 'amp;D services was over 376 million euros (36,8% of corporate expenditure on R&' || 'amp;D). With regard to the distribution by provinces of this expenditure, Gipuzkoa accounted for 52%, Bizkaia 37% and Álava the remaining 11% in 2007.