Research and development gross expenditure: 2018

Estimates of total expenditure on research and development (R&D) across different market sectors by UK country and English region for 2018.

Main points

An estimated total of £786 million was spent on R&D in 2018 in Wales; this was an increase of £106 million (15.6%) compared with 2017. This increase was largely a result of a spike in higher education R&D, up by £102 million (42.5%) over the year.
R&D expenditure in Wales represented 2.1% of total UK R&D expenditure and 1.0% of Welsh gross domestic product (GDP).
Business enterprise R&D accounted for 54.7% of the total in Wales, with higher education accounting for 43.5%, and government making up 1.8%.
In a small region such as Wales, the level of R&D expenditure can be influenced greatly by a small number of major projects commencing or ending, meaning the time series can be volatile.

Datasets and interactive tools

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