Earlier this month, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) released its annual “Science, Technology and Industry (STI) Scoreboard” report, detailing the effects of digital technologies on innovation and the economy through a set of STI indicators.

Business R&D accounted for over 60% of R&D expenditures in the OECD between 2005 and 2015, staying stable during the decade, save increases in shares for China and Turkey, and decreases for Mexico, the Russian Federation and South Africa. Small- and medium-sized enterprises averaged 35% of business R&D in 2015.

The US had the greatest number of top-cited publications in 2015 at almost 500,000, followed by China with 398,000, approximately as many publications as the UK and Germany combined. International collaboration increased in 2015 in 32 out of 35 OECD member countries, with Luxembourg, Iceland, Switzerland and Belgium indicating the highest inclination to participate in collaborative projects.

Foreign sources of funding for R&D contributed significant amounts to business R&D in many OECD countries, such as Austria, Iceland, Ireland and Latvia. The UK received 8%, the greatest amount of EU funding, for R&D in higher education from the EU in 2014, and 50% of its business R&D was sourced from foreign-controlled affiliate companies.

Source: OECD