Developing countries boost their R&D efforts

The number of researchers in developing countries grew from 1.8 million to 2.7 million in the short span of five years (2002-2007), according to a new data release from the UIS. This jump equates to a 45% increase in numbers and an 8.1% increase in the global share of researchers (from 30.3% to 38.4%). In developed countries, the number of researchers increased by only 8.6% to 4.4 million during the same period.

Research and development (R&D) investment has also intensified in developing countries. A 1% R&D intensity level (i.e. national R&D expenditure as a percentage of the gross domestic product) is the typical benchmark used by policymakers. Developing countries reported a substantial increase in R&D intensity from 0.8% in 2002 to 1.0% in 2007. Results should be interpreted with caution, however, as the averages hide wide variation among countries. China, for example, heavily influenced these results with an increase from 1.1% in 2002 to 1.5% in 2007. Only six other countries in this grouping reported R&D intensities of 1% or more, indicating that many countries still have significant gains to make in their R&D efforts.

The information was collected through the third UIS survey on statistics of science and technology (S&T), which focuses on human resources devoted to R&D and R&D expenditure. The UIS S&T survey was carried out in 2008 in 149 developing countries and territories. Full results of the survey can be accessed at the UIS Data Centre.
Online resources:

• Link directly to the UIS S&T survey results
•  Review the Fact sheet: A global perspective on S&T 

zrodlo:  The UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS)