Research and development; expenditure and funding per implementation sector

Table explanation

Description topics

Expenditure on in-house R&D activities

Total

Total expenditure on in-house R&D activities, in millions of euros.

Source of financing

Businesses

The actual transactor in the production process, characterised by self-sufficiency with respect to the decisions about that process and by offering its products to third parties.

This definition, in particular the self-sufficiency element, allows for a business to include more than one branch, but also more than one legal entity. This is the case when the separate branches or legal entities do not operate independently. Conversely, various sections may be discerned within a single legal entity, which operate independently in terms of production. On the basis of the definition, then, these sections constitute businesses in themselves. This last point mainly applies to larger concerns with diverse activities. When an entity so defined is active in different countries, for the purposes of national statistics the Dutch section is treated as a self-contained business.

In official Statistics Netherlands terminology, the company as defined here is known as a "business unit" (BU), in order to prevent confusion with the term "business" used in general terminology - which is, for these purposes, too imprecise.

The statistical unit of a business is an approximation of the kind-of-activity unit, as defined by Eurostat. This definition combines two requirements which may be in conflict: contribution to a single activity versus correlation with one or more operational units. When operationalising the statistical unit of a business, the Netherlands prioritises the second requirement.

Government

Government funding for R&D consists of the following components:
- funds obtained from public research institutions;
- funds obtained from central government and local authorities, for example for contract research;
- funds obtained from the Dutch Research Council (NWO) (for example, competitive research funding for the higher education sector);
- lump sum financing from the government (for example government funding from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science to the higher education sector).

Higher education

Education as recorded in the Higher Education and Scientific Research Act (Wet op het hoger onderwijs en wetenschappelijk onderzoek, WHW).

Higher education includes higher professional education (hbo) and university education (wo).

Private non-profit organisations

R&D funding by private non-profit organisations consists of funds obtained from organisations in the private sector that are considered not-for-profit. Predominantly charities, based in the Netherlands, that raise funds and mainly act as financier of research. Including donations and legacies.

Abroad

Total abroad

Businesses, international organizations, research institutions, higher education institutions and other organizations that are located abroad. These can also be abroad located subsidiaries of a multinational corporation. The European Union is also considered to be foreign.

Businesses abroad

Businesses located abroad. These can also be abroad located subsidiaries of a multinational corporation.

Other abroad

International organizations, public research institutions, higher education institutions and other organizations that are located abroad. The European Union is also counted as part of the category other abroad.

Type of cost

Current costs

These gross wages including pension contributions, social contributions and any additional benefits. In addition, these are costs for small tools, rental costs, maintenance of laboratories, scientific literature, computer rental time, insurance, energy, water and possible travel costs.

R&D investments

Investments in buildings, laboratories, land, equipment and other fixed assets for R&D.