RESEARCH and development expenditure in Scotland rose by 4.5 per cent to £2.33 billion in 2016, from £2.23bn in the previous year, the latest official figures show.
The data published yesterday by the Office for National Statistics show business R&D expenditure in Scotland rose from £953m in 2015 to £1.07bn in 2016.
R&D expenditure in the higher education sector north of the Border edged down from £1.09bn in 2015 to £1.06bn in 2016.
This meant that the business sector overtook higher education sector as the biggest source of R&D expenditure in Scotland.
The ONS noted that Scotland accounted for seven per cent of total UK R&D expenditure in 2016.
UK R&D expenditure totalled £33.1bn in 2016, up by £1.4bn or 4.3% on the previous year. Most of this rise came from business R&D expenditure, which increased by £1.2bn to £22.2bn.
England accounted for 89 per cent of UK R&D expenditure in 2016. Wales and Northern Ireland each accounted for two per cent.
The UK ranked 11th out of 28 European Union countries in terms of its R&D expenditure as a percentage of gross domestic product in 2016. It had the same ranking in 2015. R&D expenditure in the UK in 2016 represented 1.67% of GDP, unchanged from 2015, the ONS noted.
The ONS noted funding of UK R&D from overseas had fallen for the second year running in 2016, to £5.2bn.
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