Austrian Research and Technology Report 2020

1. Current Trends
19
expenditure by sector of performance and source of 
funds in 2017; in addition, values and proportions of 
the funding sectors shown have been adjusted to ex-
clude the changes in classifications (i.e. shown in 
terms of the old classifications).
Fig. 1-3 illustrates the funding streams for 2017. 
The volumes of research carried out are shown in 
the boxes, while the arrows represent funding 
streams. The business enterprise sector carried out 
R&D work with a volume of €7,888 million, of which 
approximately €7,706 million was in the company 
R&D sub-sector and approximately €183 million in 
the institutes’ sub-sector (“Kooperativer Bereich”). 
The higher education sector is largely financed from 
public funding, with €2,164 million, while their own 
funds, which since 2017 have been reported sepa-
rately, make only a small contribution, as do enter-
prise funding and funds from abroad. Due to the 
Table 1-1: R&D expenditure by sector of performance and source of funds, 2017
Sector of performance
In € 
millions Shares in % Source of funds
In € 
millions Shares in %
Adjusted 
volumes in 
€ millions
Adjusted 
shares 
in %
Business enterprise sector
7,888
69.9 Business enterprise sector
6,170
54.7
5,533
49.0
Institutes’ sub-sector
183
1.6 Public sector
3,118
27.6
3,844
34.0
Company R&D sub-sector
7,706
68.3 Private non-profit sector
39
0.3
39
0.3
Higher education sector
2,533
22.4 Higher education sector
88
0.8
0
0.0
Government sector
807
7.1 Abroad
1,874
16.6
1,874
16.6
Private non-profit sector
62
0.5
Abroad excl. EU
1,668
14.8
1,668
14.8
EU
207
1.8
207
1.8