ANNUAL spending on business research and development in Scotland has exceeded £1 billion for the first time, and employment in such activity is at a record high of nearly 12,000, official figures show.
Data published yesterday by Scotland’s chief statistician reveal business enterprise research and development (BERD) spending totalled £1.072 billion in 2016 - an increase of £98 million on the prior 12 months.
The Scottish Government noted Scotland had outperformed the UK over 2016 with this 10.1 per cent growth in BERD expenditure. The corresponding increase in the UK as a whole was 3.3 per cent.
It added that, since 2007, Scotland’s BERD spend had risen by around 69 per cent in real terms, while corresponding expenditure UK-wide had increased by only 22 per cent over the same period.
Scottish Economy Secretary Keith Brown said: “This is great news for Scotland’s economy. It shows that Scotland’s businesses are embracing innovation, and the measures we have taken to increase business investment in research and development are paying off. The improvements we have made, and continue to make, to our innovation system are having an impact, with Scotland outperforming the UK in terms of BERD spend growth.”
He added: “This complements wider innovation statistics which show that Scotland’s number of innovation-active businesses has increased hugely over the last few years, matching the performance of the top quartile of EU member states."
Mr Brown acknowledged there was a “long way to go”.
However, he added: “Our ambition for improvement continues and this is why we increased funding for business research and development by £45m over the next three years from 2018/19, with the view to doubling BERD by 2025.”
Jim Watson, director of innovation and enterprise services at Scottish Enterprise, said: “Hitting £1bn business R&D investment is fantastic news for Scotland. We’ve been working hard to get more companies innovating and investing in R&D, and this approach is clearly working from the data announced…
“These figures echo the excellent results we’re seeing from the companies we work alongside, and also reflect the EY Attractiveness Survey 2017 which recognises Scotland as the UK leader in attracting foreign direct investment for R&D projects.”
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