Companies increase R&D expenditures by about seven percent

© MedUni Wien

The increase in the research to GDP ratio in Austria from 1.73 percent in 1998 to the expected level of 3.19 percent in 2018 is also due to the subsidiaries of multinationals such as Boehringer Ingelheim or Infineon which carry out research in Austria.

According to the latest forecasts, the research expenditures of all companies based in Austria will rise to EUR 6.11 billion, comprising a rise of 6.8 percent from 2017. About EUR 1.95 billion will flow from abroad.

In an EU comparison for the year 2016, Austria’s research/GDP ratio of 3.15 percent ranks second, surpassed only by Sweden (3.25 percent) but ahead of Germany (2.94 percent), Denmark (2.87 percent) and Finland (2.75 percent).