Record year for Scottish business R&D spending

Spending on business research and development in Scotland has topped £1 billion for the first time ever.

Data published today by Scotland’s Chief Statistician shows the investment in R&D by firms in 2016 was the highest since records began.

The report shows –

Economy Secretary Keith Brown welcomed the figures in the Business Enterprise Research and Development (BERD) Scotland 2016 report

He said: “This is great news for Scotland’s economy. It shows that Scotland’s businesses are embracing innovation and the measures we have taken to increase business investment in research and development are paying off.

“The improvements we have made, and continue to make, to our innovation system are having an impact with Scotland outperforming the UK in terms of BERD spend growth.

“This complements wider innovation statistics which show that Scotland’s number of innovation-active businesses has increased hugely over the last few years, matching the performance of the top quartile of EU member states.

“We know we have long way to go however, our ambition for improvement continues and this is why we increased funding for business research and development by £45 million over the next three years from 2018/19, with the view to doubling BERD by 2025.”

Jim Watson, director of Innovation and Enterprise Services at Scottish Enterprise, added: “Hitting £1bn business R&D investment is fantastic news for Scotland. We’ve been working hard to get more companies innovating and investing in R&D, and this approach is clearly working from the data announced today.

“These figures echo the excellent results we’re seeing from the companies we work alongside, and also reflect the EY Attractiveness Survey 2017 which recognises Scotland as the UK leader in attracting foreign direct investment for R&D projects.”