New figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) indicate that €977.8 million of the total expected spend on R&D spend last year would be from Irish-owned enterprises. Overall, Irish-owned enterprises increased R&D spending by 12.1 per cent or €104.1 million between 2017 and 2019, the data shows. In terms of R&D spend, the largest 100 enterprises accounted for almost €2.7billion, or 81.8 per cent, of the total R&D expenditure that year. Just 10.7 per cent of expenditure came from external sources with 89.3 per cent of all R&D spend funded by enterprises’ themselves. There were 1,322 Irish-owned enterprises engaged in R&D activities in 2019 which equates to 73.5 per cent of all R&D active businesses.

Source: The Irish Times March 02, 2021 13:18 UTC