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Research and Development Statistics (RDS)

 

Tiny URL for this page: oe.cd/rds

 

The 2023 edition of Research and Development Statistics (RDS) provides a wide range of recent data on the resources devoted to R&D in all OECD countries and selected non-member economies.

 

Data sources

RDS is based on the data reported to OECD and Eurostat in the framework of the joint OECD/Eurostat international data collection on resources devoted to R&D.

 

Dataset coverage

The statistical series published start from 1981 and cover the following:


A first set of tables deals with gross domestic expenditure on research and experimental development (GERD). This covers all R&D carried out on a national territory in the year concerned using various breakdowns. R&D expenditure data are expressed in million national currency, million current PPP$, and million constant $ (2015 prices and PPPs).


The second set covers resources devoted to R&D measured in labour terms, i.e. R&D personnel by sector of employment and various breakdowns.  R&D personnel data are expressed in full time equivalents on R&D (FTE) and in headcounts.


Datasets on R&D expenditure and personnel are also provided for R&D carried out in the business enterprise sector with detailed data by industry or size class. Additionally R&D in the higher education and private non-profit sectors are also available with detailed data by field of research and development or type of costs.

 

Government Budgets on R&D

The R&D expenditure and personnel tables are based on surveys of the units carrying out the R&D and national estimates and provisional data have been included when available. More up to date information on government intentions or objectives when committing money to R&D can be derived from budgets. These data are shown in the Government budget allocations for R&D (GBARD) table, which includes the breakdown of government R&D budgets by socio economic objective (SEO).

 

Historical R&D Expenditure Series

In addition to these tables updated once a year, a subset of (discontinued) historical series are also available.

These tables contain recently digitised historical OECD research and development (R&D) expenditure and personnel statistics for the period 1963-1980. These represent data collected by OECD among member countries following the publication of the OECD Frascati Manual in 1963 and its two subsequent revisions in 1970 and 1974. Methodological notes by country and indicator are available in this publication. Because of the discontinuities in the data, these historical series are presented separately from the OECD Research and Development Statistics publication. Researchers and the public in general with an interest in this subject are invited to investigate the features of these historical data. Independent efforts to attempt to construct consistent series and derive long-term historical indicators are encouraged for research purposes, subject to appropriate attribution and description of sources.

To complement these historical series, a few dataset reflecting the former data collection based on the 2002 version of the Frascati Manual are also available.

 

Quality control and international comparability

  • R&D data are collected at a national level through surveys and other sources following the recommendations of the OECD Frascati Manual, which is the internationally recognised standard in this area (http://www.oecd.org/sti/inno/frascati-manual.htm)
  • Data are then submitted by national contacts to the OECD (in co-ordination with Eurostat for EU countries) and reviewed in order to ensure consistency
  • Countries are also required to provide detailed metadata in order to identify and assess any deviations from the Frascati guidelines
  • When data are disseminated, flags are used to provide information on specific series and datapoints.

Related links and further reading

  • The RDS database is the main foundation for the Main Indicators of Science and Technology (MSTI) publication and accompanying database. MSTI, published twice yearly, provides a set of indicators on the level and structure of R&D efforts undertaken by the 42 economies covered by the RDS database. These cover the resources devoted to research and development, patent families, technology balance of payments and international trade by highly R&D-intensive industries.
  • The ANalytical Business Expenditure on Research and Development database (ANBERD) builds upon the RDS data on Business R&D Expenditures broken down by Main Activity and Industry Served, by using estimation methods to address data gaps and discontinuities to provide consistent, internationally comparable series on business sector R&D expenditures.
  • The OECD Science Technology and Industry Scoreboard, published every other year, features indicators traditionally used to monitor developments in science , technology, innovation and industry, and complements them with new and experimental indicators that provide new insights into areas of policy interest.

 

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