Romania spent some EUR 560 million on research and development (R&D) in 2013, according to recent data from the National Statistics Institute. The R&D expenditure represented 0.39% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Of this total, some RON 2 billion (EUR 453 million) represented current expenditure (83.8%), while the rest was capital expenditure.

Last year, compared to 2012, the basic research registered a decrease of 1.6 percentage points in total expenditure, from 41.4% to 39.8%. The applied research maintained its share at approximately the same level as in 2012, while the experimental development registered an increase of 2.5 percentage points in total expenditure, according to INS.

In terms of funding sources of total R&D expenditure in 2013, public funds have the highest share – 52.3%, followed by sources from companies – 31%. When it comes to public funds, the units in the governmental sector received the largest sums – 70.2%, followed by units in the higher education sector – 21.1%. Most of the financing sources for the R&D activity abroad were mostly oriented towards the units in the higher education sector – 45.1%, in the governmental sector – 27.7% and in the business sector – 26.5%.

Over 43,300 people were working in the R&D sector at the end of 2013 in Romania, some 20,000 being women. Based on the effective working hours, 76.5% of the total had full-time jobs, according to INS.

In terms of categories of profession, the largest share of employees in research and development was represented by researchers – 62.1% of the total.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com