Automotive Expotrs November 2022

R&D spending rises to 82 billion Turkish Liras
Gross domestic expenditure on research
and development (R&D) increased by 26
billion Turkish Liras or 49 percent from
2020 and reached 81.8 billion Turkish Liras
($9.1 billion) last year, according to data
from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK).
The share of R&D expenditures in the
country’s GDP increased from 1.09 percent
two years ago to 1.13 percent in 2021.
This was 0.8 percent in 2008, rising to
0.88 percent in 2015. Per capita R&D
expenditure was 974 liras, or $108, in
2021, up from 650 liras, or $94 in 2020,
data also showed. The largest spenders
were financial and non-financial companies
which accounted for 70.7 percent of all
R&D expenditures. Higher education
ranked second at 23.7 percent, while the
share of the general government, including
private non-profit organizations, in those
expenditures was 5.6 percent.
Among the R&D expenditures, personnel
expenditures constituted the largest
item at 49.5 percent, followed by other
current costs at 42.3 percent and capital
expenditures at 8.2 percent.
On the funding side, financial and nonfinancial
corporations financed 62.4
percent of the R&D spending, while the
general government’s share was 25.1
percent. Funds from abroad accounted
for 1.9 percent and higher education
institutions’ share was 10.6 percent.
Nearly 222,000 were employed in R&D
activities on a full-time basis. Of those
67.4 percent were employed by financial
and non-financial corporations and 28.2
percent in higher education institutions.
Some 4.4 percent were employed in
general government including private nonprofit
sector in 2021.
Female full-time employees accounted
for 32.1 percent, or 71,300 people, of all
R&D personnel, with higher education
institutions capturing the largest share at
45.7 percent.
Around 31 percent of all R&D personnel
had PhD and 24.3 percent masters’
degrees.
Ankara took the lead with a 31.9 percent
share in all R&D spending, followed by
Istanbul at 28.5 percent and the region,
covering the northwestern industrial
provinces of Kocaeli, Sakarya, Düzce and
Bolu, at 9.8 percent.
Most of the R&D expenditures was
carried out by enterprises engaged in
high-tech activities. R&D spending of
companies engaged in high-tech activities
in the manufacturing sector amounted
to 32.8 billion liras or 47.5 percent of all
expenditure in this sector.
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