Science and research are essential for maintaining an economy’s long-term basis for growth, prosperity, future viability and resilience. They pave the way for adjustment and development processes within the private sector and society, and in this way contribute to addressing the major societal and global challenges of our time in the environmental, economic, social and security fields. Data and facts provide the foundation for evidence-based policy-making that addresses these challenges.
The German research and innovation (R&I) system is characterised by a research-intensive business sector, a diverse higher education landscape and a wide variety of non-university research institutions. In total, the business enterprise sector, higher education institutions, the government sector and private non-profit institutions invested 137.1 billion euros in research and development (R&D) in 2024, according to provisional calculations. Nominal R&D expenditure thus reached a new high. By comparison with the previous year, spending rose by 5.1 billion euros, or 3.8%.
The most important sector of R&D performance is the business enterprise sector, which invested 92.5 billion euros in R&D in 2024, according to provisional figures. This is a nominal increase of 2.3% compared to the previous year. That said, R&D activities in key sectors, such as the automotive industry, the chemical and pharmaceutical sector and the metal-working industry, are under pressure and have recently stagnated or declined. Higher education institutions and public and publicly funded research organisations saw a larger comparative rise in their R&D spending over the same period: an increase of 7.1% or 2.9 billion euros to 44.5 billion euros.
The provisional 2024 figure for R&D expenditure as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) is 3.17%, higher than ever before. That said, the proportion of internal R&D expenditure relative to GDP in the business enterprise sector (2.14%) remained flat compared to the previous year and is at roughly the same level as in 2019. R&D intensity in the government and higher education sector rose slightly from 0.99% in 2023 to 1.03% in 2024.
The Federation and Länder are striving to optimally support the stakeholders active in R&D, and to strengthen Germany’s position as a hub of innovation and ensure it is ready for the future. To achieve this, it is essential for R&D activities and results to be recorded using a viable set of indicators. This provides a snapshot of R&D activities at a given point in time and for a selected regional area, and enables trends to be mapped over time and compared. In this way, development potential and weaknesses can be identified. Policy measures can be specifically tailored to address them.
The data report accompanying the Federal Report on Research and Innovation sets out data and facts relating to the German R&I system, based on selected indicators, and places them in the international context. The first part of the data report is devoted to the financial resources and personnel used to perform research and development activities (R&D inputs).
This kind of analysis looks at all R&D activities, irrespective of their results. It sets out the scale of investment in research and development. Looking at inputs offers the advantage of a wide variety of aggregation options, allowing sectoral and regional comparisons, as well as compatibility with other statistics, such as Germany’s national and regional accounts. The timing of inputs can also be clearly determined. The OECD’s Frascati Manual is essential in measuring the activities. It establishes fundamental concepts and guidelines for the collection of quantitative data and statistical classifications, which ensures a consistent approach internationally and thus allows valid international comparisons to be made. The key indicators on the input side are expenditure on research and development and R&D personnel.
The second part of the data report looks at the results of research and development (R&D outputs). Publications, patents and the export of research-intensive goods are examples of R&D results. Measuring R&D results and interpreting the indicators is more complex than in the case of inputs, as it is generally difficult to directly attribute the statistically recorded outputs to the underlying R&D inputs. At the same time, research activities are always open-ended processes, and so an increase in R&D investment will not necessarily lead to quantifiable results. In addition, it must be kept in mind that the relevance of an indicator may vary a great deal from one research area or sector to another.
For instance, publications are a major output indicator for academia, but less so for the business sector. To paint as full a picture as possible, the data report therefore brings together a wide range of output indicators. It begins by looking at individual indicators, for example regarding publications, patents and the commercialisation of R&D. In doing so, the data report is guided by the typical sequence of R&D results, and reflects their growing economic importance. Finally, the report assesses the performance of the German R&I system by international standards on the basis of selected innovation indices.
More detailed information can be found in Data and Facts about the German Research and Innovation System (in German).