Research & Development (R&D) expenditure in 2021 (€3.88bn) was 19% higher when compared with 2019 (€3.26 bn).
Current expenditure, comprising of labour costs and other current costs, accounted for 89% (€3.44bn) of all R&D expenditure in 2021.
Capital expenditure accounted for the remaining 11% or €440.1m of total R&D expenditure.
Irish-owned enterprises reported a 22% increase in R&D spend between 2019 and 2021, up from €963.0m to €1.18bn.
Enterprises estimated an R&D spend of €3.89bn for 2022, consisting of 90% current expenditure and 10% capital expenditure.
| Business Expenditure on Research and Development, 2017 and 2019-20221 | €'000 | ||||
| 2017 | 2019 | 20201 | 2021 | 20221 | |
| Current Expenditure | 2,492,173 | 2,700,588 | 2,536,714 | 3,438,954 | 3,506,390 |
| Capital Expenditure | 278,041 | 555,707 | 854,451 | 440,053 | 380,762 |
| Total Expenditure2 | 2,770,214 | 3,256,295 | 3,391,165 | 3,879,007 | 3,887,152 |
| of which; Irish Spend | 858,849 | 962,985 | 977,845 | 1,177,296 | 1,143,697 |
| Foreign Spend | 1,911,365 | 2,293,309 | 2,413,320 | 2,701,711 | 2,743,455 |
| 1Expenditure for 2020 and 2022 estimated. | |||||
| 2Totals may differ due to rounding. | |||||
Results from the 2021-2022 Business Expenditure on Research and Development (BERD) survey show that €3.88bn was spent on R&D activities by enterprises in Ireland in 2021.
| Total R&D expenditure | |
| 2017 (Actual expenditure) | 2.770214 |
| 2019 (Actual expenditure) | 3.256295 |
| 2020 (Estimated expenditure) | 3.391165 |
| 2021 (Actual expenditure) | 3.879007 |
| 2022 (Estimated expenditure) | 3.887152 |
Large enterprises (250+ persons engaged) had the greatest share of R&D expenditure in 2021, accounting for 62.6% (€2.43bn) of all expenditure. This was an increase of 12.8% or €275.1m compared with 2019.
Small enterprises (<50 persons engaged) had a spend of €635.8m in 2021, accounting for 16.4% of all R&D expenditure.
Medium sized enterprises (50-249 persons engaged) spent €814.7m on R&D during same period, representing 21.0% of total R&D expenditure.
Enterprises reported a spend of almost €2.05bn on labour costs in 2021, accounting for 52.7% of all R&D expenditure. Other current costs, which include materials, supplies, equipment, and overheads associated with R&D accounted for 35.9% (€1.39bn) of total expenditure. Capital expenditure accounted for the remaining €440.1m or 11.3% of R&D spend.
Foreign-owned enterprises spent €2.70bn on R&D in 2021, accounting for 69.6% of all R&D expenditure. This comprised of current expenditure of €2.47bn (91.6%) and capital expenditure of €228.2m (8.4%).
In comparison, Irish-owned enterprises spent €1.18bn on R&D, with current expenditure accounting for 82.0% (€965.5m) and capital expenditure accounting for the remaining 18.0% (€211.8m).
In 2021, the top 100 enterprises accounted for 79.4% or €3.08bn of total R&D expenditure, of which foreign-owned enterprises accounted for 76.1% (€2.35bn) and Irish-owned enterprises accounted for the remaining 23.9% (€735.5m). Outside the top 100 enterprises, R&D expenditure amounted to €798.0m, of which 44.6% (€356.2m) can be attributed to foreign-owned enterprises and 55.4% (€441.8m) to Irish-owned enterprises.
In 2021, R&D spending was highest in the Services sector, accounting for 61.3% (€2.38bn) of all expenditure, while Manufacturing accounted for the remaining 38.7% (€1.5bn). For the purposes of this survey, it should be noted that spending in the Services sector includes the spend from all other non-Manufacturing sectors.
Labour costs accounted for 69.6% (€1.46bn) of current expenditure for enterprises in the Services sector in 2021, compared with 43.6% (€583.4m) for Manufacturing enterprises.
In terms of R&D capital expenditure, Services accounted for 62.8% (€276.3m), while Manufacturing enterprises accounted for 37.2% (€163.7m).
The BERD regional data has been produced in accordance with the latest NUTS classifications. See Information Note for further details. The location of the enterprise’s registered head office is used to determine the region used.
Total R&D spending in the Eastern & Midland region amounted to €2.49bn in 2021, accounting for 64.3% of all R&D expenditure. The Southern region (€1.05bn or 27.0%) and the Northern & Western region (€338.1m or 8.7%) accounted for remainder. In comparison with capital expenditure, current expenditure accounted for the majority of R&D spending in each region. In the Northern & Western region, current expenditure accounted for 95.9% of all R&D expenditure, compared with 91.7% for the Southern region and 86.4% for the Eastern & Midland region.
Enterprises reported that 87.9% of all R&D expenditure was funded by own company/internal funds, while the remaining 12.1% of expenditure was funded by external sources. The lowest proportion of internal funding (64.6%) occurred in small enterprises, compared with more than 92% in both medium and large enterprises.
The BERD survey is carried out in all EU member states. 2021 data for the EU27 was not available at time of publication. The most recent data available from Eurostat is taken from the 2019-2020 survey and allows comparisons across the EU. R&D intensity for a country is defined as the R&D expenditure as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
In 2019 the R&D intensity rate for Ireland (0.91%) was below the EU27 average of 1.48%. Ireland ranked 13th in the EU27 in 2019, compared with a ranking of 12th in both 2017 and 2015.
Sweden had the highest R&D intensity rate in the EU27 in 2019 at 2.43%, while Latvia had the lowest at 0.17%.
| Percentage | |
| Sweden | 2.43 |
| Belgium | 2.33 |
| Austria | 2.2 |
| Germany | 2.18 |
| Denmark | 1.84 |
| Finland | 1.84 |
| Slovenia | 1.51 |
| EU27 | 1.48 |
| Netherlands | 1.46 |
| France | 1.44 |
| Czechia | 1.19 |
| Hungary | 1.11 |
| Italy | 0.92 |
| Ireland | 0.91 |
| Estonia | 0.87 |
| Poland | 0.83 |
| Portugal | 0.73 |
| Spain | 0.7 |
| Luxembourg | 0.64 |
| Greece | 0.59 |
| Bulgaria | 0.56 |
| Croatia | 0.53 |
| Slovakia | 0.45 |
| Lithuania | 0.43 |
| Malta | 0.35 |
| Cyprus | 0.3 |
| Romania | 0.28 |
| Latvia | 0.17 |
R&D personnel consists of researchers (PhD qualified and others), technicians and other support staff.
In 2021, there were 32,961 persons engaged in R&D in Ireland. Of this total, 50.8% or 16,739 persons were employed as researchers, of which 2,491 were PhD qualified researchers. In addition, there were 8,690 (26.4%) technicians and 7,532 (22.9%) support staff.
The number of R&D personnel engaged in small enterprises in 2021 was 9,338, accounting for 28.3% of all R&D personnel. Medium enterprises had 8,659 persons engaged, accounting for 26.3% of all R&D personnel, compared with 14,964 persons or 45.4% of R&D personnel engaged in large enterprises.
Small enterprises employed 1,096 persons or 44.0% of all PhD qualified researchers employed in R&D. This compares with 907 persons or 36.4% in large enterprises and 489 persons or 19.6% in medium enterprises.
Almost four in ten (37.7%) R&D staff were engaged in Irish-owned enterprises compared with 62.3% in foreign-owned enterprises. More R&D staff were engaged in the Services sector (69.2%) than in the Manufacturing sector (30.8%).
The Eastern & Midland region accounted for more than two-thirds (67.8%) of R&D staff in 2021 with 22,337 persons engaged. This compares with 6,938 (21.0%) persons engaged in the Southern region and 3,685 (11.2%) persons engaged in the Northern & Western region.
In 2021, female R&D personnel accounted for 26.7% (8,808) of all R&D staff, compared with 27.1% in 2019 and 26.1% in 2017.
Almost half (46.5% or 4,099) of these females were employed as researchers, followed by 28.4% (2,500) employed as support staff, and 25.1% (2,209) employed as technicians.
There were 24,153 males employed in R&D in 2021, with 52.3% (12,641) of these employed as researchers, 26.8% (6,481) employed as technicians, and the remaining 20.8% (5,032) employed as support staff.
R&D enterprises are those enterprises which reported that they either performed in-house R&D, had R&D performed on their behalf, or controlled branches engaged in R&D activity.
There were 1,931 enterprises engaged in R&D activities in Ireland in 2021, of which more than two-thirds (67.7%) spent less than €500,000 on R&D activities. Almost one in five (19.2%) enterprises had a spend in the €500,000 - €1.99m category, while 13.1% spent €2m or more.
In 2021, of the 1,931 enterprises engaged in R&D activities in Ireland, 1,266 (65.6%) were small enterprises, 469 (24.3%) were medium enterprises and 195 (10.1%) were large enterprises.
Almost 87% (1,678) of R&D active firms spent less than €2m on R&D. Small firms had by far the largest share (81.3%) of R&D spend in the €0-€99,999 category and also had the largest spend in the €100,000-€499,999 (71.6%) and €500,000-€1,999,999 (57.8%) categories.
Large firms accounted for more than half (56.3%) of R&D spend in the €5m and over category in 2021.
In 2021, there were 1,345 (69.7%) Irish-owned enterprises engaged in R&D activities, compared with 585 (30.3%) foreign-owned enterprises. The majority of Irish-owned enterprises (79.7% or 1,072) spent less than €500,000 on R&D, compared with 40.3% or 236 foreign-owned enterprises.
In 2021, 668 or 34.6% of all R&D firms spent between €100,000-€499,999 on R&D. This was closely followed by 32.8% (640) of enterprises which had a spend of €0-€99,999 on R&D activities.
Similarly, the most frequent R&D spend category was €100,000-€499,999 for both the Services sector (427 firms or 33.5%) and the Manufacturing sector (241 firms or 36.6%).
Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (04 May 2023) released Business Expenditure on Research and Development 2021-2022.
Commenting on the release, Devin Zibulsky, Statistician in the Business Statistics Division, said: “Business Expenditure on Research and Development measures the Research & Development (R&D) activities of enterprises in Ireland including expenditure, personnel, and sources of funding. Measuring R&D activity allows for viewing changes over time, international comparisons, and evaluating the social and economic impact of R&D.
In 2021, enterprises in Ireland reported a 19% increase in R&D expenditure to €3.88bn, compared with €3.26bn 2019. Labour costs accounted for the largest proportion of R&D expenditure, rising to €2.05bn in 2021 from €1.7bn in 2019. This reflected a growth in employment of R&D staff to 32,961 in 2021 from 27,755 in 2019. Large enterprises (with 250 or more persons engaged) accounted for 63% or €2.43bn of R&D expenditure in 2021, with Irish-owned enterprises accounting for 30% or €1.18bn of total R&D expenditure."