In 2015, Poland’s total Gross Expenditures on R&D (GERD) was €4.3 billion ($4.8 billion). The three sectors of R&D in Poland are the business sector, which in 2015 accounted for €1.5 billion ($1.7 billion), the public sector, which represented €1.7 billion ($2.0 billion) and foreign sources, which made up €516 million ($581.7 million). Poland’s GERD target is 1.7% of GDP in 2020.

The federal government is the main funder of R&D in Poland, although its overall share of spending shrank after 2010, when the private sector and European Commission began to provide greater R&D funding. For example, in 2015, government budget appropriations for R&D decreased 35.4% to €1.3 billion ($1.5 billion). However, in 2015, the government increased the science budget by approximately 10% and a further 6% (compared to 2015) in 2016. The government also amended its “ineffective” tax incentives in early 2016, which placed a greater emphasis on technology acquisition instead of R&D.

Business Expenditures on R&D (BERD) have moderately increased since 2010, with manufacturing and services accounting for 95% of BERD from 2010 to 2012. Manufacturing in the automotive, electrical equipment and pharmaceuticals sectors are the chief drivers of Polish BERD. In recent years, Poland has developed a reputation of a supplier of business services, including services for clinical trials of new drugs. This has caused the offshoring and outsourcing sector in Poland to grow at a rate three times faster than that in India. Pharmaceutical companies such as Roche, AstraZeneca and Amgen are amongst the biggest BERD spenders in Poland.

Compared to 2010, the nation’s total BERD increased 29 percentage points to 0.47% in 2015; however, Poland still lags behind the majority of EU member countries and even its fellow Central and Eastern European countries. This is thought to be due to a shortage of incentives for businesses to invest in R&D, which has also contributed to the lack of innovative R&D. However, although overall investments have been decreasing, they are expected to pick back up in 2017 when R&D projects co-funded by the EU will be implemented.

Source: European Commission