EU Research Budget Rises 60.5 Percent, Reaches 150.5 Billion US Dollars

Illustration of research activities in the laboratory. The EU government's research and development budget rose 60.5 percent in a decade to reach 150.5 billion US dollars in 2025. Illustration photo: Pexels.

JAKARTA - The governments of the European Union countries are allocating more budget for research and development or R&D. In a decade, the value has increased by 60.5 percent and reached around 130.2 billion euros or 150.5 billion US dollars in 2025.

Anadolu Agency, quoted Saturday, August 8, reported that based on Eurostat data released Friday, government R&D budgets in the European Union were equivalent to 0.69 percent of the bloc's gross domestic product or GDP.

The number is up 2.4 percent compared to 2024 and 60.5 percent compared to 2015.

R&D is an abbreviation of research and development.

If calculated per capita, the EU government's R&D budget allocation reaches 288.9 euros in 2025. This figure is up 57.7 percent compared to 183.2 euros per capita in 2015.

Luxembourg recorded the highest allocation of 917.2 euros per capita. Denmark was next with 627.1 euros, followed by Germany with 553.5 euros.

Romania recorded the lowest allocation of 18.8 euros per capita. Hungary was at 57.4 euros and Malta 73.7 euros.

Romania is also the only EU country to record a decrease in the allocation of R&D budget per capita during the 2015-2025 period. The figure fell by 9.6 percent.

All other EU countries recorded an increase in the same period.

Bulgaria recorded the highest growth of 495.5 percent, while Sweden recorded an increase of 14.7 percent.

In terms of use, general funds for universities received the largest share, namely 37.3 percent of the total allocation.

The next portion of 18.4 percent is used for general knowledge development.

Meanwhile, industrial and technological production received 9.5 percent of the total budget. The health sector received 6.7 percent, while defense received 5.8 percent.