Research & Development Headline Results 2017
Date published:
The NI R&D survey covers the Business Sector, Higher Education and Other Government financed activities.
Key points
In 2017 £759.2m was spent on Research & Development (R&D) by Businesses, Higher Education and Government in Northern Ireland (NI). This is an increase of £23.3m (3.2%) in cash terms compared to the previous year. Over the year, Business R&D spend increased by £18.9m. Higher Education and Government R&D spend also increased by £2.0m and £2.4m respectively from 2016 to 2017.
Of the £759.2m spent on total R&D, £542.8m (71.5%) was spent by Businesses, £195.8m (25.8%) by the Higher Education sector and the remainder (£20.5m or 2.7%) was Government expenditure.
The increase in total expenditure was primarily due to an increase of £18.9m (3.6% over the year) in Business expenditure. There were also increases of £2.0m in Higher Education expenditure (1.0%) and £2.4m in Government expenditure (13.2%).
Of the twelve United Kingdom (UK) regions, Northern Ireland reported the sixth largest annual increase in (in-house) R&D expenditure over the year (6.4%).
The ten biggest spending companies accounted for 36.9% of the total R&D spend in Northern Ireland in 2017, lower than in 2016 (38.8%).
There was a 20.3% increase (from 748 in 2016 to 900 in 2017) in the number of local and externally owned companies engaged in R&D over the year. Externally owned companies accounted for 56.9% of R&D expenditure compared to 43.1% of locally owned companies in 2017. R&D spend by locally owned companies reported an annual increase of 10.6% in cash terms.
R&D expenditure by Small and Medium-sized companies (SMEs) increased by 16.5% (£43.0m) from 2016 to 2017. In cash terms, since 2012 SME expenditure has increased by 75.3% (£130.7m) from £173.7m to £304.4m in 2017.