Total expenditure on research and development in 2010 amounted to €42 million, or 0.68 per cent of GDP, the National Statistics Office said.

The NSO said this was a significant increase of €10.2 million over 2009.

The business enterprise sector contributed 62.3 per cent to total R&D, whereas the higher education and government sectors contributed 34 per cent and 3.7 per cent, respectively.

The higher outlay was driven by an increase in recurrent expenditure of €5.9 million, mainly as a result of higher labour costs and other recurrent expenditure in the business enterprise sector.

Moreover, more outlays on capital expenditure by €2.9 million were also recorded for the higher education sector, reflecting additional investment at the University in instruments and equipment and in land and buildings, mainly financed through EU funds.

Labour costs represented 64.1 per cent of total expenditure, whereas other recurrent expenditure and capital projects had a share of 24.1 per cent and 11.8 per cent, respectively.

In 2010, 1,836 employees were engaged in R&D work. The highest R&D employment rate was registered for the higher education sector, at 933 employees, followed by the business enterprise sector, with 825 employees. There was a predominance of men among researchers and technicians.

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