Communication on research and development statistics for 2017

As the official producer of research and development (R&D) statistics in Montenegro, the Ministry of Science hereby publishes key R&D statistical data for 2017. This year, for the first time, all indicators were produced along with all the breakdowns defined by the EU Regulation concerning the production and development of Community statistics on science and technology (995/2012), in line with the methodological instructions defined in the Guidelines for Collecting and Reporting Data on Research and Experimental Development (Frascati Manual, OECD, 2015). Data are produced within 18 months following the end of the year observed and are published nationally and submitted to Eurostat.

The results have shown the following:

- Total domestic spending on research and development for 2017 amounted to 0.37 % of GDP, i.e. gross expenditures for R&D amounted to EUR 15744650.96.
- There were 2234 persons engaged in research and development (in all sectors) in 2017, including 1528 researchers, 466 professional associates and 240 supporting staff members.
- Engagement in R&D forms only a part of the working engagement of most employees, which is why the real engagement is best shown by the full employment equivalent, which amounted to 695 persons for 2017.

R&D statistics provide internationally comparable data on total spending on R&D activities and staff involved in R&D. Data are collected in four sectors: higher education, government, business-entrepreneurial and private non-profit sector, based on submitted annual reports from statistical units that had R&D activities in 2017, on a census basis.

Communication with detailed R&D data for 2017 will be published on the website of the Ministry of Science by the end of August.