FIGURES

Fedit and its Centers in figures

In recent years the Technology Centers have shown themselves to be highly efficient agents in generating return on R&D&I investment.

In the VI Framework Programme, for example, the Centers had a 2.6% return for each 1,000 researchers, five times more than universities and more than twice the figure for other research bodies. In the last call for bids by CENIT, the Centers received 37% of the funds not destined to companies, with the percentage of participation by the Centers being ten times that of the remaining bodies.

In its economic report on Spain for 2006, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) highlighted the important role played by Technology Centers as instruments for making new technologies available for SMEs, and advised that the Centers should be encouraged as a useful way of promoting the culture of innovation.

R&D in Spain

According to data from the National Statistics Institute on R&D activities in Spain in 2006, total spending on R&D amounted to 11,801 million euros, 1.20% of gross domestic product (GDP).

By sectors, the corporate sector presented the highest percentage out of total spending on R&D, with 55.6% executed, 0.67% of GDP. It was followed by the higher education sector (27.7%), public administration (16.6%) and private non-profit institutions (0.2%).

The number of companies that undertake R&D increased by 15% and corporate expenditure increased by over 20%. In addition, the number of company researchers numbered 39,936, an increase of 14% on the figure for 2005.

The autonomous regions with the biggest activities in R&D were Madrid (1.98%), Navarre (1.92%) and Catalonia (1.43%). These regions are the only ones with figures for R&D spending greater than the national average.

The autonomous regions with the biggest rates of growth in this respect were Cantabria, La Rioja and Asturias.