Government budget appropriations or outlays allocated to R&D (GBAORD):Highest increase between 1999 and 2003 in Ireland, Spain and Sweden - Issue number 5/2006 - Products Statistics in Focus

In 2004, Government Budget Appropriations or Outlays for R&D (GBAORD) from the EU-25 amounted to approximately EUR 78 billion, whereas in the United States it added up to almost EUR 100 billion and EUR 27 billion in Japan. In relative terms, expressed as a percentage of GDP, it represented 0.76 %, 1.04 % and 0.72 % for the EU-25, the United States and Japan respectively. GBAORD provide an idea on how governments support R&D activities and reflect policies at a given moment in time and the concomitant priorities of the policy makers when allocating their budget. For this reason, GBAORD is broken down by 13 socio-economic objectives on the basis of the NABS classification (Nomenclature for the analysis and comparison of scientific programmes and budgets).