Total expenditure on research and development in 2011 was €47.4 million, or 0.72 per cent of the gross domestic product, meaning that Malta has surpassed the Europe 2020 target of 0.67 per cent, according to Eurostat data.

The EU headline target is three per cent.

Malta’s R&D has been well below the EU average for a number of years – it was just 0.25 per cent of GDP in 2002, and in spite of the 13 percentage points increase between 2010 and 2011, the rate of 0.72 per cent is still fifth lowest in the EU, with lowest-ranked Cyprus’ rate being 0.48 per cent.

The highest in the EU in 2011 was Finland (3.78 per cent) followed closely by Sweden (3.37 per cent).

The increase came mainly from the business sector, which increased by 57 percentage points in the past two years, followed by an increase of 41 percentage points from the higher education sector. The government sector expenditure on R&D rose by just 12 percentage points – and it still only accounts for just 3.6 per cent of all spending.

The business enterprise sector contributed 66.4 per cent to total R&D, whereas the higher education and government sectors contributed 30 per cent.

The highest rate of R&D activity was recorded in engineering and technology, accounting for 37.3 per cent of total expenditure, followed by natural sciences (21.7 per cent) and medical sciences (20.6 per cent).

Year-on-year comparisons show that all fields of science registered higher R&D expenditure, the major increases being recorded in natural and medical sciences, by 18.8 per cent and 12.3 per cent, respectively.