Written by Tracy Heindrichs
Published on 05.08.2022 • Edited on 05.08.2022 at 09:21
Luxembourg invests the most per resident in R&D, but this doesn’t represent as important a percentage of its GDP Photo: Shutterstock
The grand duchy spends an average of €689 per capita on research and development, according to Eurostat, placing it at the top of the EU chart.
A Eurostat study published on 4 August revealed that in 2021 Luxembourg spent more than all the other EU member states. Only Norway (€707.2) and Switzerland (€706.5), which don’t belong to the European Union, invested more per resident. Denmark, with €530 per capita and Germany with €470.9 complete the podium.
For Luxembourg, this represents a year-on-year increase of €80.7 per capita. This growth is a trend observed in most EU countries too. In 2021, the total government budget allocation for R&D in the European Union amounted to €109,250m (0.8% of GPD), a 6% increase compared to 2020 (€102,791m). Only Romania, Hungary, Cyprus and Finland reduced their spending in this sector over the year.
However, in November 2021, another Eurostat study revealed that Luxembourg was one of the smallest spenders on R&D in relation to the size of its GDP. Only 1.1% of the country’s GDP went into research and development, compared to neighbouring Belgium which at the time invested 3.5% of its GDP. The Chamber of Commerce at the time criticised the budget allocation to the sector, calling it stagnant.
In a joined initiative with the national research fund (FNR) and Luxinnovation, the economy ministry on 25 July 2022 said it would fund research projects that require high-performance computing (HPC) capacity. The year before, the government had offered support in healthcare research and development in a bid to turn the country into a so-called medicine valley.