Türkiye's R&D spending up nearly 50% in 2021

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) - Türkiye's gross domestic expenditure on research and development (GERD) increased to 101.74 billion Turkish liras ($11.3 billion) in 2021, up over 47% compared to 2020.

GERD includes spending on R&D activities by businesses, higher education institutions, government, and private non-profit sector.

While the share of GERD in the country's GDP was 1.37% in 2020, it was at 1.4% in 2021.

TurkStat said: "Financial and non-financial corporation had the largest share in R&D expenditures with 61.3%, followed by higher education with 34.2%.

"The share of general government R&D expenditures, including R&D expenditures made by private non-profit sector, in total R&D expenditures was 4.5%."

Personnel expenditures' share in total R&D spending was 48.9%, and the number of R&D staff was 221,811 in 2021.

The USD/TRY exchange rate was at 8.98 on average in 2021.