101.7 billion lira spent on R&D in 2021

According to the bulletin “Investigation of Research and Development Activities for the Year 2021” announced by the Turkish Statistical Institute, the amount and variety of current administrative record data regarding R&D data has increased in recent years. .

For this reason, the calculation method was revised according to the recommendations of the “Frascati Manual”, which is an international reference source, and the method was changed according to current data. In this context, the data for the period 2015-2021 was updated according to the new calculation method.

According to the updated data, the gross domestic spending on R&D increased by 32.67 billion lira in 2021 compared to the previous year and reached 101.738 million lira.

While the ratio of gross domestic spending on R&D to GDP was 1.37% in 2020, it increased to 1.4% in 2021.

Financial and non-financial companies had the largest share of R&D spending with 61.3 percent. Higher education followed with 34.2 percent. The share of general government R&D spending, including spending by non-profit organizations, in the total was 4.5 percent. Personnel expenses constituted the largest item with 48.9 percent.

While 54.6 percent of R&D spending is funded by financial and non-financial companies in 2021, 27.5 percent of general government R&D spending, 16.4 percent for higher education and 1.5 percent for foreign resources and other internal sources financed approximately 0.03 percent.

THE NUMBER OF R&D STAFF IS APPROACHING 222K

In terms of full-time equivalent (FTE), a total of 221,811 people worked as R&D staff in 2021. In terms of industry distribution, in 2021, 67.4% of total R&D staff D in terms of FTE is found in financial and non-financial companies, 28.2% in higher education and 4.4% in the public administration sector, where non-profit organizations are located. including. occurred.

The number of female R&D staff in terms of FTE was 71,301 in 2021, which is 32.1% of the total number of staff. Looking at sectors, the rate of female R&D personnel was 45.7% in higher education, 30.4% in general government, which includes non-profit organizations, and 26.6% in financial and non-financial companies.

32.2 PERCENT HAVE A DOCTORAL EDUCATION

When analyzed by educational level, it was found that 34.9 percent of R&D staff had a bachelor’s degree. This was followed by 31.2 percent Ph.D. or equivalent, 24.3 percent master’s, 4.8 percent vocational school, and 4.8 percent high school and below.

In terms of FTE, the distribution of R&D personnel by level of education is, respectively, 48 percent for bachelor’s, 20.7 percent for master’s, 18.3 percent for doctorate or equivalent, 6.7 percent for vocational school and 6.3 percent for secondary school and education. six educational levels.

According to Level 2 of the Classification of Regional Statistical Units (NUTS), the region with the highest spending in 2021 was “Istanbul”, which made 29.7% of the total R&D spending, while it was “Ankara” with 28.2% and 9%2. , the region “Kocaeli, Sakarya, Düzce, Bolu, Yalova” followed.

29.5 percent of the total number of R&D personnel were employed in the “Istanbul” regions, 19.3 percent in “Ankara” and 8 percent in the “Kocaeli, Sakarya, Düzce” regions. , Bolu, Yalova”.

53.5 percent of the 62.4 billion lira expenditures made by financial and non-financial companies in 2021 were made in R&D centers. 85.1 percent of these were carried out by companies with 250 or more employees.

It was seen that 46.3% of the Lira 35 billion 613 million of R&D expenditures made in the manufacturing industry in 2021 were made by companies involved in high-tech activities. This rate was 35.1% in 2015.

39.6 percent of total R&D spending in the manufacturing industry was carried out by medium-high technology companies, 9.6 percent by medium-low technology, and 4.5 percent by low-tech companies. .

In 2021, it was observed that most of the researchers were employed in companies that carry out medium-high technology activities, with 24,630. It was followed by companies that carry out high-tech activities with the employment of 16,720 researchers. (AA)