Research and development expenditure in Greece will exceed €3.3 billion in 2023, according to preliminary data published by the National Documentation and Electronic Content Centre (EKT), the national authority of the Hellenic Statistical System for European Research, Development and Innovation statistics, and sent to Eurostat.

More specifically, according to the announcement, in 2023, the expenditure incurred on R&D in Greece was €3,36 billion, up by €292.39 million compared to 2022 (an increase of 9.5%).

Combined with the 8.3% increase in GDP in Greece in 2023 (based on the retrospective revision), the "R&D intensity" indicator, which expresses R&D expenditure as a percentage of GDP, was 1.49%, up from 1.48% in 2022. At the European level, Greece ranks 14th among the EU27 countries in terms of R&D intensity.

BUSINESS

The business sector continues to make the largest contribution to total R&D expenditure. More specifically, in 2023, the business enterprise sector incurred R&D expenditure of EUR 1,657.95 million, an increase of 11.3% compared to 2022. As a percentage of GDP, in 2022 business R&D expenditure accounted for 0.74% of GDP, up from 0.72% in 2022.

The next sector is higher education, which saw R&D expenditures of €982.56 million (0.44% of GDP), an increase of 8.4% from 2022.

In the government sector, R&D expenditure of €705.42 million (0.31% of GDP) was incurred, up 10% compared to 2022. In the private non-profit institutions sector, R&D expenditure of €16.76 million (0.01% of GDP) was incurred.

EMPLOYMENT

In terms of employment in R&D activities, the number of Full Time Equivalents (FTEs), which yield full-time equivalent "positions", increased by 5.8% for total R&D personnel, and by 5.9% for researchers, compared to 2022.

Specifically, total R&D personnel in 2023 amount to 73,306 full-time equivalent (FTE) positions and researchers to 54,680 FTE. At European level, Greece ranks 12th among the EU27 countries in terms of FTE of total R&D personnel.