The 13th National For Women in Science Recognitions to be Presented on November 28
The official event will be attended by Mrs. Iliyana Yotova, Vice President of Bulgaria, and Mr Vassil Terziev, Mayor of Sofia
In 2016, the total amount of expenditure on research and development activity (R&D) was 734.0 million BGN which was 13.7% less than the previous year.
R&D intensity (R&D expenditure as % of GDP) also decreased in comparison with the previous year - from 0.96% in 2015 to 0.78% in 2016.
The decrease in total R&D expenditure in 2016 compared to the previous year was mostly due to the business enterprise sector where R&D expenditure decreased by 86.2 million BGN or by 13.8%.
The business enterprise sector continues to be the largest of the four institutional sectors of R&D performance with a share of 73.3% of the total R&D expenditure. It was followed by the government sector, higher education sector and private non-profit sector with share of respectively 21.2%, 5.2% and 0.3%.
The R&D activity was financed from the state budget, businesses, other national sources and from abroad. In 2016, the largest was the share of R&D funds coming from the business enterprise sector - 43.6%. They increased by 5.7% compared to the previous 2015 (from 302.6 million BGN to 320.0 million BGN). Compared to 2015, the funds from foreign sources for R&D decreased by 32.7% (from 372.9 million BGN to 250.9 million BGN).
In the structure of R&D expenditure by fields of science, the highest share belonged to technical sciences - 57.2% or 419.5 million BGN, followed by medical and health sciences with a share of 19.1% (140.3 million BGN) and the natural sciences - 13.0% (95.6 million BGN).
In 2016, the personnel employed with research and development activity amounted to 25 033 persons (in full-time equivalent), which was 11.3% more than in the previous year. The share of women in total R&D personnel was 47.6%, as the difference in the level of employment between genders was 4.8 percentage points in favor of men. The number of researchers also increased by 1 754 persons or by 12.3% compared to 2015. As in 2015, the main part of scientific staff is concentrated in companies and research institutes in the business enterprise sector - 44.8% of the total staff (in full-time equivalents) or 11 226 persons. In organizations and institutions of the government sector in scientific activities were involved 8 047 persons, which constitutes 32.1% of the total personnel engaged in R&D in 2016. In the higher education sector 5 707 persons are engaged in research and development, with a relative share of 22.8%.
Source: National Statistical Institute (NSI)
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