Business Enterprise Research and Development 2017

Scotland’s Business Enterprise Research and Development spend up 13.9 per cent over the latest year.

Scotland’s Chief Statistician today released Business Enterprise Research and Development (BERD) Scotland 2017.

The main findings are:

BERD expenditure in Scotland was £1.247 billion in 2017, this is the highest figure since the start of the series in 2001.

Scottish BERD expenditure represented 5.3 per cent of the UK total of £23.7 billion in 2017.

Between 2016 and 2017, Scottish BERD expenditure increased by 13.9 per cent in real terms; UK expenditure increased by 2.9 per cent in real terms over this period.

BERD expenditure was 0.80 per cent of Scottish GDP in 2017, the comparable figure was 1.15 per cent for the UK in 2017.

In 2017, BERD expenditure in Scotland was predominantly split between Manufacturing products (47.6 per cent), and Services products (44.9 per cent) with ‘Other’ product groups, such as ‘Extractive Industries’, comprising the remaining 7.5 per cent.

BERD expenditure on Services products increased by 47.4 per cent (+£180 million) in real terms between 2016 and 2017, whereas expenditure on Manufacturing products decreased by 1.2 per cent (-£7.4 million) and expenditure on ‘Other’ products decreased by 17.6 per cent (-£20.1 million).

Businesses in Scotland employed 13,178 R&D staff in 2017, up from 12,547 in 2016, an increase of 5.0 per cent. BERD employment is now at its highest level since the series began in 2001, when R&D employment stood at 7,210.

Background

The full statistical publication is available at http://www2.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Business/RD

This publication presents the most recent data for BERD 2017 – and revised data for 2015 and 2016. Statistics are provided by product group, business size, local authority area, source of funding, country of ownership and industry sector.

Further information on Business and Enterprise statistics within Scotland can be accessed at: http://www2.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Business

Official statistics are produced in accordance with professional standards – more information on the standards of official statistics in Scotland can be accessed at: http://www2.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/About