| Business Expenditure on Research and Development (R&D) 2011-20181 | |||||
| €'000 | |||||
| 2011 | 2013 | 2015 | 2017 | 20181 | |
| Current Expenditure | 1,606,911 | 1,874,663 | 2,075,955 | 2,492,173 | 2,541,566 |
| Capital Expenditure | 150,314 | 147,200 | 157,102 | 278,041 | 236,182 |
| Total Expenditure | 1,757,225 | 2,021,863 | 2,233,057 | 2,770,214 | 2,777,748 |
| of which | |||||
| Irish Spend | 536,868 | 703,121 | 809,662 | 858,849 | 967,088 |
| Foreign Spend | 1,220,357 | 1,318,742 | 1,423,395 | 1,911,365 | 1,810,659 |
| 1Expenditure for 2018 is estimated | |||||
Results from the 2017-2018 Business Expenditure on Research and Development survey show that almost €2.8bn was spent on research and development (R&D) activities by enterprises in Ireland in 2017. This represents an increase of 24% compared with actual expenditure in 2015 and is the largest biennial increase in the last 10 years. Current expenditure, which comprises labour costs and other current costs, accounted for 90% of all expenditure in 2017, with capital expenditure accounting for the remaining 10% or €278m of total expenditure.
Irish owned enterprises reported an increase in R&D spend of 6% or €49m, up from €810m in 2015 to €859m in 2017.
Enterprises were also asked for their estimated R&D expenditure in 2018. These estimates indicate that R&D expenditure increased to €2.78bn in 2018, with the split between current and capital expenditure similar to data reported for 2017. See Headline Table and Figure 1.
