Türkiye spent $2.27B for R&D in 2021

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) - Türkiye spent 20.25 billion Turkish liras ($2.27 billion) in research and development (R&D) activities last year.

The country's R&D expenditures' share in its gross domestic product (GDP) was 0.28% in 2021, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) data on Tuesday.

In 2020, the central government's R&D expenditures amounted to 14.33 billion Turkish liras ($2.04 billion).

Total amount of indirect -- such as tax cuts -- R&D support totaled 13.4 billion liras ($1.5 billion) last year.

It said: "When the outlays from the central government budget for R&D are classified according to socio-economic goals, the highest R&D funding went to universities for general advancement of knowledge with 48.8% in 2020.

"This socio-economic goal was followed by defense with 13.4%, industrial production and technology with 10.2%, transportation, telecommunications and other infrastructures with 6.7%, and education with 5.9%."

The average USD/TRY exchange rate was 8.9 in 2021 and 7.02 in 2020.