Some 99 billion liras allocated from budget for R&D last year

ANKARA

The central government budget outlays on Research and Development (R&D) activities amounted to 98.7 billion ($2.94 billion) in 2023, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) has said.

The share of the R&D expenditures in the central government budget was 1.38 percent.

The central government budget for R&D expenditures constituted 0.38 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which was 26.3 trillion Turkish Liras in 2023.

This was 0.36 percent of national income in the previous year. In 2008, R&D expenditures allocated in the budget corresponded to 0.27 percent of GDP.

“According to the provisional results based on government budget appropriations, Türkiye has allocated 174.6 billion liras on R&D activities in the central government budget in 2024,” TÜİK said.

The highest R&D funding went to universities, with 70.8 percent, last year, followed by industrial production and technology, with 5.8 percent.

The shares of defense and agriculture were 4.5 percent and 3.9 percent, respectively.

In 2024, the highest appropriation for R&D will be allocated to universities, with 73.2 percent, the statistics authority said.

Last year, 2.2 billion liras were allocated from the central government budget for transnationally coordinated R&D.

According to the government budget appropriations, 2.7 billion liras were allocated for transnationally coordinated R&D programs for 2024, TÜİK said.

Meanwhile, Eurostat reported on Aug. 6 that the EU-wide total for government budget allocations for R&D in 2023 was $135 million, up 5.3 percent.

This corresponds to 0.73 percent of GDP in 2023, the bloc’s statistical authority said.