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Publication - Progress report

National innovation strategy: scorecard - 2024 update

Published
11 October 2024
Directorate
Economic Development Directorate, +1 more … Chief Economist Directorate
Topic
Business, industry and innovation, Economy
ISBN
9781836018902

The national innovation strategy first published an innovation scorecard in 2023, tracking Scotland's performance against key metrics compiled from publicly available data. In the first annual update to the scorecard, Scotland’s innovation performance is compared to UK and global peers.

View supporting documents Supporting documents

2. GERD (Gross Expenditure on R&D)

2.1 Ecosystem

  • Investment

2.2 Performance Assessment

  • Performance to be Confirmed

2.3 Description

  • Gross Expenditure on R&D (GERD) measures R&D expenditure investment in Business (BERD), Higher Education (HERD), Government (GovERD) and Charity (PNP) sector and is a proxy for total R&D spend. This is expressed as a percentage of GDP to allow for regional and international comparisons.
  • R&D and related concepts follow internationally agreed OECD definitions, as published in the Frascati Manual (2015). GERD is the OECD preferred measure of R&D activity for international comparisons.
  • Also tracked for insight and analysis are the main GERD sub-categories of Business Enterprise (BERD), Higher Education R&D expenditure (HERD) and Government R&D expenditure (GovERD).

2.4 UK Regional Benchmark for GERD Main Sub-categories

  • While Scotland is in the 2nd quartile of UK regions for GERD (at 2.58% of GDP in 2022), it is in the 3rd, 1st, and 2nd quartiles for BERD (1.45% in 2022), HERD (0.99%) and GovERD (0.10%) respectively.
Chart 1: BERD as a % of GPD
A bar chart showing Scotland ranks 9th of the 12 regions in terms of BERD as a percentage of GDP
Chart 2: HERD as a % of GDP
A bar chart showing Scotland ranks 1st of the 12 regions in terms of HERD as a percentage of GDP
Chart 3: GovERD as a % of GDP
A bar chart showing Scotland ranks 6th of the 12 regions in terms of GovERD as a percentage of GDP

2.5 Current Performance

Table 2: R&D as % of GPD, 2021 and 2022
R&D as % of GPD 2022 2021
GERD 2.58% *
BERD 1.45% *
HERD 0.99% 0.98%
GovERD 0.10% 0.10%

*There is a time series break for GERD/BERD

2.6 Previous Year and Time Series

  • ONS have developed a new methodology for BERD estimates, which introduces a break to GERD time series.
  • While some detail data have been reintroduced in 2022, breakdowns by region for 2018-2021 are not available and will be published in 2025.

2.7 UK Regional Benchmark

  • For GERD, Scotland is in the 2nd quartile.
Chart 4: GERD as a % of GDP
A bar chart showing Scotland ranks 5th out of the 12 regions in terms of GERD as a percentage of GDP

2.8 International Benchmark

  • EU27 average GERD is 2.11% and OECD is 2.73%.
  • Scotland is 14th and UK 12th out of OECD countries (second quartile).
Chart 5: GERD as % of GDP – OECD 2022*
A bar chart showing Scotland ranks 14th and the UK 12th out of OECD countries in terms of GERD as a percentage of GDP

2.9 About the Data

Contact

Email: innovation@gov.scot

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