Total R&D in the Netherlands by sector of performance and source of funds, R&D activity type and type of costs
This publication provides information about the organisations that perform R&D in the Netherlands, divided into companies, higher education and research institutions. We show three graphs for these categories: we distinguish the R&D performed in the Netherlands by a) source of funding, b) type of R&D activity and c) type of costs. Data is presented for the most recent year for which data is available.
In short
- Companies fund a little over half of the R&D performed in the Netherlands, followed by the higher educations sector, and research institutes.
- For all sectors together 47% goes to applied research, 30% to experimental development and 23% to basic research.
- The costs of R&D consist for 70% of personnel costs, 24% other running costs, 3% land and building and 3% equipment.
R&D expenditure in the Netherlands by performing sector and source of funds
| Abroad | Private non profit | Higher Education | Government | Business enterprises | |
| Business enterprises | 1745 | 136 | 20 | 1198 | 13613 |
| Research institutes | 134 | 10 | 17 | 808 | 197 |
| Higher Education | 553 | 359 | 0 | 5045 | 370 |
| Total | 2432 | 505 | 37 | 7051 | 14180 |
Analysis
In 2023, total R&D expenditure in the Netherlands (GERD) amounted to 24.2 billion euros. Of this, 69% was performed in the business sector (BERD: 16.7 billion euros), 26% in the higher education sector (HERD: 6.3 billion euros) and 5% in the research institutes (GOVERD: 1.2 billion euros).
Companies fund a little over half of the R&D performed in the Netherlands, while almost one third is funded by the government, 10% comes from abroad and 2% is funded by private non-profit organizations. While business enterprises are the main funder of the R&D carried out in the private sector, government is the main funder of R&D in the higher education sector and the research institutes sector.
R&D expenditure in the Netherlands by performing sector and type of activity
| Experimental development | Basic research | Applied research | |
| Business enterprises | 7081 | 1543 | 8086 |
| Research institutes | 210 | 427 | 530 |
| Higher education | 0 | 3542 | 2786 |
| Total | 7291 | 5511 | 11402 |
Analysis
Looking at the types of R&D activity, we see that when all sectors are taken together applied research account for 47%. A further 30% comes from experimental development and 23% is basic research. Within the sectors, the shares of the different types vary: 42% of the R&D performed by companies concerns experimental development, 48% is applied research and 9% is fundamental research; research institutions mainly perform applied research (45%) and fundamental research (37%) and some applied research (18%). For the higher education sector, experimental development is included in the other two types of research. 56% of research is fundamental, 44% is applied. The higher education sector does not spend money on experimental development.
R&D expenditure in the Netherlands by performing sector and type of costs
| Instruments and equipment | Land and buildings | Other current costs | Labour costs | |
| Business enterprises | 547 | 381 | 3546 | 12237 |
| Research institutes | 37 | 27 | 263 | 840 |
| Higher education | 132 | 370 | 1886 | 3939 |
| Total | 716 | 778 | 5695 | 17016 |
Analysis
70% of R&D expenditure consists of personnel costs, 24% are other current (material) costs, 3% goes to land and buildings and 3% is spent on instruments and equipment. Within the companies and research institutes, the distribution is about the same. Higher education has a smaller proportion of personnel costs, but larger shares of material costs and costs of land and buildings.