Austrian Research and Technology Report 2020

Table 1-6: Employees in R&D by sector of performance, 2007 and 2017
Employees in R&D
R&D expenditure
in € millions
R&D expenditure per full time 
equivalents in € thousands
Headcount
Full time equivalents
2007
2017
Growth
2007
2017
Growth
2007
2017
Growth
2007
2017
Growth
Higher education sector
35,269
48,363
37%
13,613
17,680
30%
1,637
2,533
55%
46.42
52.38
13%
Government
5,500
10,314
88%
2,488
5,266
112%
367
807
120%
66.78
78.20
17%
Business enterprise 
sector
48,352
71,327
48% 36,989 52,478
42%
4,846
7,888
63%
100.22
110.60
10%
PNP
337
1,028
205%
162
585
260%
17
62
254%
51.56
59.87
16%
Total
89,458 131,032
46% 53,252 76,010
43%
6,868 11,290
64%
76.77
86.16
12%
Note: PNP = private non-profit sector. 
Source: Statistics Austria. Calculations: WPZ Research.

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1. Current Trends
27
Fig. 1-8: Employment structure of R&D staff in full time equivalents, 2007, 2015 and 2017
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
2007 2015 2017
2007 2015 2017
2007 2015 2017
2007 2015 2017
2007 2015 2017
Total 
Business enterprise sector Higher education sector
Government sector
Private non-profit sector
Researchers (total)
Technicians and equivalent staff (total)
Other supporting staff (total)
Percentage of women
amongst researchers
Percentage of women amongst 
technicians and equivalent staff
Percentage of women
amongst other supporting staff
Source: Statistics Austria. Calculations: WPZ Research.
Fig. 1-9: Percentage of female researchers in full time equivalents in OECD countries, 2007 and 2017
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
50%
55%
LV
A
LT
U
ES
T
PRT
GRC
SV
K
ES
P
DN
K
CH
L
IS
L
PO
L
IRL
BE
L
SV
N
HU
N
FR
A
ITA
TUR
SW
E
NED
CZ
E
DEU
LU
X
AU
T
2007
2017
Note: Arranged by proportion of women in 2017. No data are available on the countries omitted. Data for Belgium and Iceland are from 2007 and 2011; 
France: 2011 and 2017; Greece: 2010 and 2017; Ireland: 2007 and 2015.
Source: OECD. Calculations and graphic: WPZ Research.

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28
Austrian Research and Technology Report 2020
Regional distribution of R&D
The volumes of research carried out vary quite sig-
nificantly between individual federal states. Styria 
has the highest research intensity by far, with 4.87%. 
The EU target of three percent is otherwise only met 
in Upper Austria and Vienna; in all the other federal 
states the research intensity level is below the tar-
get.
9
There is also a disproportionately high number 
of young, research-intensive companies (start-ups) 
based in the three federal states mentioned.
10
In absolute terms, over two thirds (69.57%) of R&D 
expenditure is accounted for by Upper Austria, Styria 
and Vienna. This is a far larger proportion than the 
contribution of these three federal states to Austria’s 
GDP (55.05%). So Austrian R&D is significantly 
over-represented in these states compared to their 
economic output, and particularly in Styria. However, 
the dominance of Vienna and Styria has decreased 
since 2007 (combined share of R&D in 2007: 55.43%; 
9 Values for the individual states are: Burgenland 0.85%, Lower Austria 1.80%, Vienna 3.60%, Carinthia 2.94%, Styria 4.87%, Upper 
Austria 3.46%, Salzburg 1.59%, Tyrol 2.88%, Vorarlberg 1.75%.
10 See Keuschnigg and Sardadvar (2019). For a more detailed description of the start-up scene in Austria, see also Leitner et al. 
(2019) 
https://austrianstartupmonitor.at/en/
of GDP: 38.93%), while the proportion in Upper 
Austria has increased.
Fig. 1-10 shows the development of research in-
tensity ratios by region since 2007 in detail. In all 
federal states the figures for 2017 are higher than in 
2007; the highest growth in research intensity tend-
ed to be in those federal states which had the lowest 
levels at the beginning of the observation period. 
This trend is documented by the variance in the log-
arithmically calculated research intensity: it de-
creased significantly from 2007 to 2009, and then 
more slightly until 2015, since when it has increased 
slightly. Thus despite the consistent increase in re-
search intensity throughout Austria, there is a trend 
towards reduced regional differences over time. Ex-
ceptions are Carinthia and Tyrol, at the medium level, 
which show low rates of increase in research intensi-
ty; in both states the research intensity has actually 
decreased in recent times.