Spending on research and development (R D) in Britain has reached a record high, but still less than that in other 10 European Union member states, a report by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed Thursday.
The total fund in Britain has grown to 31.6 billion pounds (about 39 billion U.S. dollars), a 4-percent increase, or 1.2 billion pounds (1.48 billion dollars) higher than the previous year, said the ONS. The amount of spending represents 1.68 percent of Britain's gross domestic product (GDP).
However, it is below the European Union's average spending of 2.03 percent of GDP, putting Britain in the 11th place in spending among the 28 EU member states.
The ONS study shows that the R D spending-to-GDP ratio is higher in Germany, France and the Netherlands, as well as seven other European countries, including the Czech Republic and Slovenia.
Sweden tops the EU list, with the spending accounting for 3.26 percent of its GDP. The ONS statistician Daniel Groves said, "Britain spent 206 pounds (254dollars) per head of population in performing R D in 1990. This has increased by 136 percent to 486 pounds (599.97 dollars)." Of the total amount now being spent on R D, two thirds went to the business sector and 25 percent to universities and higher education.
Government and research councils spend most of the rest. The three biggest business sector spenders on R D, said the ONS, are pharmaceutical industries, motor vehicles and parts and computer programming and information service activities. The majority R D expenditure was carried out in England.
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