Figures reveal fall in Scottish R&D spending

Spending on Research and Development in Scotland fell by £76m in 2010

Research and development (R&D) by Scottish businesses went into decline during the downturn, from a position that was already behind the UK figures.

The latest Scottish government figures on R&D during 2010 ran to less than half of the rate for the UK as a whole, whilst university research spending was ahead of the UK.

The data revealed R&D spending for that year totalled £1.89bn.

At 7.2% of the UK total, that is less than Scotland's population share.

The figure is a decrease of £76m in real terms on the previous year.

Spending on business enterprise R&D in Scotland was £622m in 2010, 3.9% of the UK figure and a decrease of £25m in real terms since 2009.

Higher Education Research and Development spending reached £968m in 2010.

That represented 13.6% of the UK figure and a decrease of £41m in real terms on the previous year.

Government R&D expenditure in Scotland came to £300m in 2010, 11.9% of the UK figure and a decrease of £10m in real terms since 2009.