Austrian Research and Technology Report 2020

Fig. 1-7: R&D expenditure by type of research and sector of performance (in € millions), 2017
0
500
1,000
1,500
2,000
2,500
3,000
3,500
4,000
4,500
5,000
5,500
Basic research
Applied research
Experimental development
Business enterprise sector Federal government
Higher education sector
Note: The private non-profit sector was not included on account of its minimal share. 
Source: Statistics Austria. Calculations and graphic: WPZ Research.

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Austrian Research and Technology Report 2020
themselves
7
constituting only a small proportion. At 
11.1%, the largest share contributed by the business 
enterprise sector went towards the engineering sci-
ences, while the natural sciences received the bulk of 
EU-funded R&D. It is noteworthy that the proportion 
of EU-financed research has decreased since 2013, 
and the nominal value has barely increased – by only 
0.52%; after adjustment for inflation this in fact rep-
resents a decrease.
8
This development can be at-
tributed in large measure to the Austrian Academy of 
Sciences (OeAW), which receives a relatively high 
level of funding from the EU, but since 2017 has been 
7 Including the higher education institutions’ own funds, derived from income from expert assessments, testing and studies carried 
out for third parties; also income from donations and sponsorships as well as tuition fees.
8 For 2013 data see the 2016 Research and Technology Report.
included in the government sector figures rather than 
the higher education sector.
Looking at R&D expenditure by economic sector, 
manufacturing dominates, with a combined total of 
almost two thirds (65.5%) of all R&D expenditure. In 
percentage terms, therefore, the sector contributes 
nearly three and a half times as much to R&D as it 
does to Austria’s total gross value added. Interest-
ingly this ratio has increased slightly since 2007 
(from 3.43 to 3.46), while the manufacturing sector’s 
share of total gross value added has fallen noticeably 
(from 20.3% to 18.9%). This means that manu facturing