General description

This dataset gives total expenditure on research and development (R&D) in each of the UK regions.

Data collection and calculation

Data are broken down into business enterprise expenditure on R&D (BERD), government expenditure on R&D (GOVERD) and higher education expenditure on R&D (HERD). The total for the UK also includes the contribution made by private non-profit organisations, which is not disaggregated by region.

Data for the English regions for 2018 onwards is currently only available at the following aggregations:
• North East, North West and Yorkshire and The Humber
• East Midlands, West Midlands and South West
• East of England, London and South East

Frequency of publication

Twice yearly

Data reference periods

2001 to 2022

Users, uses and context

GERD is the UK’s most reliable estimate of national research and development spending that draws together information on R&D spending in the public and private sectors for both civil and defence applications.
Changes introduced as part of the amendments to the System of National Accounts (SNA) in 2008, and in ESA 2010, specify that R&D from September 2014 onwards, should be considered as an ancillary activity. Expenditure on R&D should constitute investment in R&D assets, which as a consequence needs to be capitalised in the UK National Accounts. In short, R&D expenditure will now contribute to the compilation of the value of the UK’s net worth and be included as part of GDP estimates. Please see the ONS ESA 2010 page for more information.
There are numerous users within and outside Government who use these data to produce various analyses and to inform policy decisions. These include:
• European Union’s Statistical Office (Eurostat) - the UK provides statistics measuring R&D activity in accordance with European Commission Regulation No. 995/2012 of the European Parliament and the council. The estimates in this statistical bulletin are used to provide information that is consistent with other EU member states and to enable benchmarking to be achieved. Europe 2020 targets for economic growth include a target of 3% of the EUs’ GDP (both private and publicly funded) to be invested in R&D by 2020. This means that the estimates in this release are essential in monitoring progress towards this target;
• OECD – uses GERD data for constructing internationally comparable databases and producing regular statistical publications such as the ‘Main Science and Technology indicators’ (MSTI) and ‘The Annual Business Enterprise Research and Development’ statistics (ANBERD). The data are also used for analytical studies, which underpin economic analyses and policy reviews;
• The European Commission’s Research and Innovation Directorate has recently published the Innovation Union Competitiveness report, 2011. One of the key findings is that the EU is slowly moving towards its target of 3% of GDP but there is a widening gap between the EU and its world competitors notably due to weaker business R&D investment;
• The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) use GERD data to assess policy impact and inform debate. R&D data underpins their assessments of UK innovation performance as well as international work in the field;
• The Welsh Government (WG), Scottish Government (SG) and the Northern Ireland Department of Finance and Personnel (DFPNI) use GERD data as a key indicator for measuring the performance of their respective economies within the UK, as well as to monitor and develop R&D policies which seek to increase R&D investment. Regional GERD information is also published in the Scottish GERD tables;
• The Research and Development Society is a UK-based organisation formed to promote the better understanding of R&D in all its forms. Its members include representatives from industry, government departments and agencies, universities and consultants. The Research and Development Society make use of GERD data, as a key source of information, for understanding how much is being invested in R&D in the UK on an annual basis and to inform wider debates about R&D. Requests for GERD data are made from a variety of sources including academics, government departments, and economic consultants. This means that the data are used in various publications.

Rounding applied

The data are given rounded to the nearest £ million and so there may be some apparent slight discrepancies between the sum of constituent items and the totals as shown.

Revisions information

On release of new data there may be revisions to take account of late returns and misreporting.
The ONS have stated that, following further quality assurance of the flow of funding within the higher education sector, it was decided to remove the element relating to funding between higher education establishments. This has resulted in a revision of figures from 2001 onwards.

Title

Research and development expenditure by UK country/English region

Last update

13 August 2024 13 August 2024

Next update

November 2024

Publishing organisation

Welsh Government

Source 1

Research and development statistics, Office for National Statistics

Contact email

economic.stats@gov.wales

Designation

National Statistics

Lowest level of geographical disaggregation

UK regions

Geographical coverage

UK regions

Languages covered

English and Welsh

Data licensing

You may use and re-use this data free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government License - see http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence

Weblinks

www.ons.gov.uk

Keywords

Research and development

Statistical quality

Estimates from the BERD survey are based on a stratified sample drawn from the population of businesses known to actually perform R&D or are likely to be R&D performers. As with any sample survey, the BERD survey is subject to two types of possible error:
• Sampling errors: due to only a sample of the population being surveyed. These estimates can be quantified and were published as part of the BERD publication.
• Non-sampling errors. These include factors such as population coverage, misreporting and non-response bias. These errors are generally hard to quantify because of the difficulty in identifying the population of actual/likely R&D performers, and because of the problems ensuring that businesses adhere to Frascati R&D definitions.

For 2022 ONS have a new sample, that has increased the volume of data received and ensured that the BERD statistics now better reflect the level of R&D performed across the UK economy. This means that the estimates in this bulletin supersede those from the interim uplift approach taken in 2021 and are considered the most accurate estimates of business R&D in the UK. Therefore, estimates from 2022 are not directly comparable with previous years except at the UK level.

ONS are working with the Office for Statistics Regulation as they carry out a quality assessment of BERD statistics. This review focuses on the new methods and how these meet user needs with the aim of regaining National Statistics status for these statistics in the next release. Further information is available in the ONS release: https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/governmentpublicsectorandtaxes/researchanddevelopmentexpenditure/bulletins/ukgrossdomesticexpenditureonresearchanddevelopment/2020

The BERD, GovERD and PNP questionnaires were redesigned after the 2010 survey to better reflect user needs, including new National Accounts and European Union requirements. These followed large revisions to both the BERD and GovERD surveys for the 2007 data collections.
A new methodology and a new survey were introduced for compiling estimates of R&D expenditure for the PNP sector as a performer from 2011. The estimates from this survey have been used as the basis for the compilation of the 2012 PNP performer data in this publication.
While all these changes are viewed as being an improvement, they may have an impact on the
comparability of data over time. Unfortunately, it is not possible to measure this impact.
A quality report for the GERD output is available on the ONS website:
http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/guide-method/method-quality/quality/quality-information/business-and-energy/gross-domestic-expenditure.pdf

Name

ECON0044