Expenditure on Research & Development in Greece is 1.49% of GDP

R&D expenditure in 2022 in Greece exceeded €3 billion according to preliminary data published and sent to Eurostat by the National Documentation Centre (EKT), the competent National Authority of the Hellenic Statistical System for European Research, Development and Innovation statistics.

More specifically, in 2022, R&D expenditure in Greece was €3,084.82 million an increase of €438.37 million euro compared to 2021 (growth rate of 16.6%). Combined with the 13.8% increase in GDP in Greece in 2022, the indicator ‘R&D Intensity’, which expresses R&D expenditure as a percentage of GDP, stood at 1.49% as opposed to 1.46% in 2021. At European level, Greece ranks 14th among the EU27 countries.

The results of EKT's statistical survey, conducted in 2023 in institutions with research and development activities in the four sectors of activity: business (BES), higher education (HES), government sector (GOV) and private non-profit institutions (PNP), are available in the publication ‘Research and Development Indicators for expenditure and personnel in 2022 in Greece - Preliminary data’ (https://metrics.ekt.gr/publications/676).

The business sector continues to be the largest contributor to total R&D expenditure. In 2022, R&D expenditure amounted to €1,514.36 million in the business sector, showing an increase of 21.6% compared to 2021. As a percentage of GDP, in 2022 the R&D expenditure of enterprises constitutes 0.73% of GDP rising from 0.69% in 2021.

This was followed by the higher education sector, where R&D expenditure amounted to €905.76 million (0.44% of GDP), showing an increase of 13,9% compared to 2021.

In the government sector, R&D expenditure amounted to €647.41 million (0.31% of GDP), an increase of 9.7% compared to 2021.

In the sector of private non-profit institutions, R&D expenditure of €17.28 million was incurred (0.01% of GDP).

In terms of employment in R&D activities, the number of Full Time Equivalents (FTEs), which yield full-time ‘jobs’, increased by 9.9% for total R&D personnel and by 10.2% for researchers compared to 2021.

The total R&D personnel in 2022 amounted to 67,813 full-time positions (FTEs) and researchers to 49,960 FTEs. The largest increase was recorded in the business sector (13.6% in total R&D personnel and 14.9% in researchers). At European level, Greece ranks 13th among the EU27 countries in terms of FTEs of total R&D personnel.

The statistics and indicators for Research, Development and Innovation in Greece refer to European statistics and are produced by the National Documentation Centre, the competent national authority of the Hellenic Statistical System. They are the official national data sent and published by Eurostat and the OECD. They are also available from EKT in printed and electronic publications and data tables on the website http://metrics.ekt.gr.

The survey for the recording of R&D expenditure & personnel for 2021 is carried out within the framework of Subproject 5 ‘Production of RIS3 indicators for the years 2016-2023’ under the Action ‘Monitoring Mechanism for the implementation of the national strategy RIS3-Collection and processing of indicators’, implemented by the National Documentation Centre, as part of the Operational Programme ‘Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship & Innovation (NSRF 2014-2020)’, co-financed by Greece and the European Union-European Regional Development Fund.