UNESCO Statistics, STI
The site of the UNESCO Institute of Statistics presents statistics and indicators on expenditure and human resources in research and development. The data are the result of the 2004 UIS Survey of Science and Technology Statistics as well as data collections undertaken by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Eurostat and the Network on Science and Technology Indicators-Ibero-American and Inter-American (RICYT).
The UIS S&T Survey was relaunched in 2004 as part of the UIS Immediate, Medium and Longer-Term Strategy in Science & Technology Statistics.
• Number of Total R&D personnel (full-time equivalent, FTE, and headcount, HC) by sex • Total R&D personnel (FTE) by sector of employment • Women as percentage of R&D personnel (FTE/HC) • Researchers (FTE/HC) by sex • Women as percentage of researchers (FTE/HC) • Researchers (FTE) by sector of employment • Researchers per million inhabitants (FTE/HC) • Technicians and equivalent staff (FTE/HC) by sex • Technicians per million inhabitants (FTE/HC) • Other supporting staff (FTE/HC) by sex • Total gross domestic expenditure on R&D (GERD) in local currency and international PPPs • GERD by sector of performance (%) • GERD by source of funds (%) • GERD as percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) • GERD per capita
For less recent data, consult the archives.
Definitions:
Personnel in R&D
Researchers are professionals engaged in the conception or creation of new knowledge, products, processes, methods and systems, and in the planning and management of R&D projects. Postgraduate students at the PhD level (ISCED level 6) engaged in R&D are also considered as researchers.
Technicians (and equivalent staff) comprise persons whose main tasks require technical knowledge and experience in one or more of the following fields: engineering, physical and life sciences, or social sciences and humanities. They perform scientific and technical tasks involving the application of concepts and operational methods, normally under the supervision of researchers. As distinguished from technicians participating in the R&D under the supervision of researchers in engineering, physical and life sciences, equivalent staff perform corresponding R&D tasks in the social sciences and humanities.
Other supporting staff includes skilled and unskilled craftsmen, secretarial and clerical staff participating in or directly associated with R&D projects. Included in this category are all managers and administrators dealing mainly with financial and personnel matters and general administration, insofar as their activities are a direct service to R&D.
Measurement units of R&D personnel
Headcount (HC) data reflect the total number of persons employed in R&D, regardless of whether they work on a part- or full-time basis.
Full-time equivalent may be thought of as one person-year. Thus, a person who normally spends 30% of his/her time on R&D and the rest on other activities (such as teaching, university administration and student counselling) should be considered as 0.3 FTE. Similarly, if a full-time R&D worker is employed at an R&D unit for only six months, this results in an FTE of 0.5.
Expenditures in R&D
Gross domestic expenditure on R&D (GERD) is the total intramural expenditure on R&D performed on the national territory during a given period. There are five categories of funding sources:
Business enterprise funds are allocated to R&D by all firms, organizations and institutions whose primary activity is the market production of goods and services (other than the higher education sector) for sale to the general public at an economically significant price, and those private non-profit institutes mainly serving these firms, organizations and institutions.
Government funds are allocated to R&D by the central (federal), state, or local government authorities. These include all departments, offices and other bodies which furnish, but normally do not sell to the community, those common services, other than higher education, which cannot be conveniently and economically provided, as well as those that administer the state and the economic and social policy of the community.
Public enterprises funds are included in the business enterprise funds sector. These authorities also include private non-profit institutes controlled and mainly financed by government.
Higher education funds include funds are allocated to R&D by institutions of higher education comprising all universities, colleges of technology, other institutions of post-secondary education, and all research institutes, experimental stations and clinics operating under the direct control of or administered by or associated with higher education establishments.
Private non-profit funds are allocated to R&D by non-market, private non-profit institutions serving the general public, as well as by private individuals and households.
Funds from abroad refer are allocated to R&D by institutions and individuals located outside the political borders of a country, except vehicles, ships, aircraft and space satellites operated by domestic organizations and testing grounds acquired by such organizations, and by all international organizations (except business enterprises) including their facilities and operations within the country’s borders.
Purchasing power parities (PPP) is a rate of currency conversion into US dollars that eliminates the differences in price levels among countries. When expenditure on GNP for different countries is converted into a common currency by means of the PPP it is, in effect, expressed at the same set of international prices so that comparisons between countries reflect only differences in the volume of goods and services purchased. In other words, a given sum of money, when converted into US dollars at the PPP rate (PPP$), will buy the same basket of goods and services in all countries
Other
Research and experimental development (R&D) comprise creative work undertaken on a systematic basis in order to increase the stock of knowledge, including knowledge of humanity, culture and society, and the use of this stock of knowledge to devise new applications. The term R&D covers three activities: basic research, applied research and experimental development.
