R & D Spend Down 2%

Gross domestic expenditure on research and development (R&D) fell by 2% to £27m in 2012 compared with 2011. When adjusting this for inflation R&D expenditure fell by 3%. Since 1985 R&D expenditure has increased by 56% from £17.3bn in 1985 peaking at £27.9bn in 2011.

The business sector contributed 63% of all UK R&D expenditure in 2012. At current prices expenditure decreased by 2% to £17.1% in 2012 compared with 2011. Total expenditure on R&D in the UK in terms of GDP was 1.72%, down from 1.77% in 2011. When UK figures are compared internationally UK R&D is below the EU28 provisional estimate of 2.06% of GDP.

GERD Increased By 5%

Gross domestic expenditure on research and development increased by 5% in 2011 to £27.4bn according to the ONS. When adjustments are made for inflation the increase is 2% compared with 2010.

The business sector made by far the biggest increase in current price terms with an increase of 8% to £17.4bn compared with 2010 and 6% when adjustments are made for inflation. Research in higher education, including universities higher education institutes also increased by 2% to £7.1bn compared with 2010 and after adjustments for inflation the increase is 0.2%.

Government and research councils, including Defra and the Department of Health and the 7 research councils, accounted for 9% of total expenditure. The research councils R&D expenditure fell by 11% from £1.2bn in 2010 to £1bn in 2011.

Private non-profit organisations which includes charities and trusts in mainly health and medical research include some of the biggest in the world. It is the smallest R&D sector in the UK spending £0.5bn or 2% of total UK R&D spend in 2011.

Gross national expenditure on R&D can also be divided between the civil and defence sectors. The civil sector accounted for 93% of R&D expenditure in 2011, a total of £25.4bn an increase of 5%.