Austrian Research and Technology Report 2020

Table 1-2: Growth in R&D funding by sector of performance and source of funds, 2007–2017
Sector of performance
Growth in funding by source of funds in %
Total
Business enter
-
prise sector
Feder
al go
vern
-
ment
Regional go
vern
-
ments
Local 
 
go
vernments
Other pub
-
lic-sector Funding
Priv
ate non-pr
of
-
it sector
Abr
oad 
 
(excl. EU)
EU
Business enterprise sector
62.8
65.5
127.5
-7.4
-80.4
24.5
322.1
42.7
97.2
Government sector
119.6
104.0
160.2
60.8
-14.6
351.1
33.6
689.6
258.9
Private non-profit sector
254.2
410.5
25.4
66.1
-77.4
153.3
43.6
20001.6
129.3
Higher education sector
54.7
38.1
59.0
57.5
-2.5
32.3
-24.3
95.1
68.0
All
64.4
65.4
79.2
49.2
-23.0
43.8
20.6
47.7
104.5
Sector of performance
Growth in funding by source of funds in € millions
Total
Business enterprise sector
Feder
al 
go
vernment
Regional go
vernments
Local 
 
go
vernments
Other public- sector Funding
Priv
ate non-
pr
ofit sector
Abr
oad (excl. 
EU)
EU
Business enterprise sector
3,042.6
2,106.5
400.8
-3.2
-1.2
34.6
5.0
469.7
30.3
Government sector
439.3
35.7
187.1
107.5
-0.7
54.1
0.9
18.3
36.4
Private non-profit sector
44.2
10.5
0.1
0.4
-0.1
1.2
4.9
25.2
2.0
Higher education sector
895.9
35.8
718.6
24.7
-0.1
58.9
-4.1
25.2
36.9
All
4,422.0
2,188.4
1,306.7
129.5
-2.0
148.7
6.7
538.4
105.6
Note: “Higher education institutions” and “Research premium” as a source of funding were subsumed under “Federal government” in 2017 for ease of 
comparability.
Source: Statistics Austria. Calculations: WPZ Research.

---

22
Austrian Research and Technology Report 2020
Fig. 1-5: R&D expenditure by source of funds, 2007, 2015 and 2017 in %
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
Business enterprise sector
Public sector
Private non-profit sector
Abroad (non-EU)
EU
Note: The figure shows the origin of funding (Y-axis) within a sector of performance (X-axis). “Higher education institutions” as a source of funds were 
subsumed under “Federal government” in 2017 for ease of comparability.
Source: Statistics Austria. Calculations and graphic: WPZ Research.
Fig. 1-6: Research intensity and funding in OECD countries, 2017
0.0%
1.0%
2.0%
3.0%
4.0%
5.0%
6.0%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
IS
R
KO
R
CH
E
SW
E
JP
N
DEU DN
K
AU
T
US
A
FIN BE
L
FR
A
IS
L
NOR N
ED SV
N
CZ
E
CA
N UK ITA
NZL HU
N
PRT ES
T
LU
X
ES
P
IRL GRC POL TUR LT
U
SV
K
LV
A
CH
L
ME
X
Re
se
ar
ch i
nt
en
si
ty
Fun
di
ng
s
ha
re
s
Public sector
Business enterprise sector
Abroad
Research intensity
Note: Arranged by degree of research intensity. The category “Public sector” includes the categories ”Government” and “Other national sources”. No 
data available for Australia; data for the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom are from 2016.
Source: OECD. Calculations and graphic: WPZ Research.

---

1. Current Trends
23
places it in eighth position in the OECD, and fourth 
in the EU. Austria’s proportion of funding from the 
public sector, at 28.8%, is below the OECD weighted 
average of 30.4%. Austria receives 16.6% of its R&D 
funding from abroad, which is significantly higher 
than the OECD weighted average of 7.2%.
Distribution of R&D expenditure
R&D expenditure is broken down into basic research, 
applied research and experimental development. Fig. 
1-7 shows the way expenditure for these categories 
is split across different sectors of performance. The 
largest share (48.9%) is attributed to experimental 
development, which is predominantly (93.3%) carried 
out in the business enterprise sector. The business 
enterprise sector dominates in applied research too 
(67.6%), although the higher education sector (26.0%) 
is also a major contributor in this area, with the latter 
dominating in basic research (68.8%).
Despite the substantial increase in total volume 
over the course of time, there has been little change 
in the split between different types of expenditure. 
As shown in Table 1-3, staff costs make up around 
half the expenditure, though this is decreasing 
slightly as a proportion. Current costs have increased 
slightly as a proportion of the total, from 41% in 2007 
to 43.3% in 2017. On the other hand, expenditures on 
facilities and equipment, as well as for buildings and 
land, have fallen in relative terms.
In the higher education sector there are signifi-
cant variations in R&D expenditure across different 
fields of research: as in previous years, the largest 
proportion was attributed to the natural sciences, at 
€722 million in 2017. This volume has decreased, 
however, in comparison to the 2013 level of €738 mil-
lion, so the gap has reduced between the natural sci-
ences and other fields of research, where the nomi-
nal volumes have all increased since 2013. As can be 
seen from Table 1-4, R&D in higher education institu-
tions is predominantly financed by the public sector, 
with self-financing by higher education institutions