{"id":462023,"date":"2026-08-07T17:29:36","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T15:29:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/08\/07\/ricerca-e-sviluppo-lue-aumenta-gli-investimenti-nel-2025-stanziati-130-miliardi-di-euro\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T18:22:29","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T16:22:29","slug":"research-and-development-the-eu-is-stepping-up-investment-with-e130-billion-allocated-in-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/08\/07\/research-and-development-the-eu-is-stepping-up-investment-with-e130-billion-allocated-in-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Research and development: the EU is stepping up investment, with \u20ac130 billion allocated in 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – According to the latest data<\/a> published<\/a> by<\/span> Eurostat on public funding for research and development, in 2025, European Union governments allocated approximately \u20ac130.2 billion to research and development (R&D), equivalent to 0.69 per cent of the EU\u2019s GDP. <\/span><\/p>\n

This figure represents a 2.4 per cent increase compared with the \u20ac127.1 billion in 2024 and 60.5 per cent compared with 2015, when funding stood at \u20ac81.1 billion. Over the past ten years, therefore, European public budgets have allocated almost \u20ac50 billion more to R&D.<\/span><\/p>\n

Almost \u20ac290 per inhabitant<\/b><\/h4>\n

\n

Taking population into account, in 2025 EU governments allocated an average of \u20ac288.9 per inhabitant to research and development, 57.7 per cent more than the \u20ac183.2 spent in 2015.<\/span> <\/p>\n

However, there are very marked differences between countries. First is Luxembourg<\/strong>, with \u20ac917.2 per inhabitant, followed by Denmark<\/strong> with \u20ac627.1, and <\/span>Germany<\/strong> with \u20ac553.5.<\/span> <\/p>\n

At the other end of the table are Romania<\/strong>, Hungary<\/strong><\/span>, and Malta<\/strong>. Romania<\/strong> has allocated just \u20ac18.8 per inhabitant, <\/span>Hungary<\/strong> \u20ac57.4, and <\/span>Malta<\/strong> \u20ac73.7.<\/span> <\/p>\n

Compared with 2015, however, almost all countries have increased their per capita allocations. The only exception is Romania<\/strong>, where spending fell from 20.8 to 18.8 euros per inhabitant, a decrease of 9.6.<\/span><\/p>\n

The most significant increases, however, were recorded in Bulgaria<\/strong>, which saw its per capita funding rise almost sixfold, from \u20ac15.5 to \u20ac92.3 (+495.5 per cent). The other EU countries follow, with much more modest increases: Sweden<\/strong>, for example, rose from \u20ac363.4 to \u20ac416.7 per inhabitant, a 14.7 per cent increase, the lowest of those recorded.<\/span><\/p>\n

Infographic by Withub<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Over a third to fund universities<\/b><\/h4>\n

\n

How are public research funds allocated? In 2025, 37.3 per cent of the EU\u2019s GBARD was allocated to the “general advancement of knowledge”<\/strong><\/span>. This mainly consists of general public funding for universities (GUF), which public universities use to support their research activities.<\/span> <\/p>\n

A further 18.4 per cent of the funding was allocated to the general advancement of knowledge through sources other than general university funding.<\/span> <\/p>\n

Other key sectors include industrial production and technology, which accounted for 9.5 per cent of the total, healthcare 6.7 per cent, and defence 5.8 per cent.<\/span> <\/p>\n

Overall, therefore, more than half of European public funding for R&D is allocated to general knowledge funding, while smaller proportions are directed towards specific sectors such as technology, health, and defence.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The figure represents an increase of 2.4 per cent compared with the \u20ac127.1 billion recorded in 2024 and a 60.5 per cent increase compared with 2015. There are marked differences between the various EU countries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6540,"featured_media":462008,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25705],"tags":[25815,27336,25833,30062,26105,26640,32274,31100,31284,28222,26559],"class_list":["post-462023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-danimarca-at","tag-dati-eurostat-en","tag-health","tag-lussemburgo-en","tag-malta-in-2","tag-romania-en","tag-statistics-en","tag-swedenat"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6540"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=462023"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462023\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":462024,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462023\/revisions\/462024"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/462008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=462023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=462023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=462023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}