In 2025, EU governments allocated an estimated €130 200 million on their budgets to R&D (GBARD), equivalent to 0.69% of GDP. This indicates a 2.4% increase from 2024 (€127 144 million) and a 60.5% increase compared with 2015 (€81 138 million).
This information comes from data on government budget allocations for R&D (GBARD) published by Eurostat today. The article presents a handful of findings from the more detailed Statistics Explained article.
In 2025, government budget allocations for R&D at EU level stood at €288.9 per inhabitant, a 57.7% increase compared with 2015 (€183.2 per inhabitant).
Luxembourg (€917.2 per inhabitant) recorded the highest R&D budget allocations per person among EU countries, followed by Denmark (€627.1) and Germany (€553.5). On the other hand, the lowest were in Romania (€18.8), Hungary (€57.4) and Malta (€73.7).
Source dataset: gba_nabsfin07
Compared with 2015, Romania (-9.6%) was the only EU country that registered a decrease in its budget allocations for R&D in terms of € per inhabitant, down from €20.8 in 2015 to €18.8 in 2025.
The other EU countries registered increases, ranging between +14.7% in Sweden (from €363.4 per inhabitant in 2015 to €416.7 in 2025) and +495.5% in Bulgaria (from €15.5 to €92.3).
General university funds receive more than a third of the R&D budget
In terms of distribution by socioeconomic objectives, 37.3% of the GBARD was directed to the general advancement of knowledge, primarily financed by a public block grant known as public general university funds (GUF), used by public higher education institutions to support their activities. Additionally, 18.4% of the GBARD was dedicated to the general advancement of knowledge from sources other than GUF, 9.5% to industrial production and technology, 6.7% to health, and 5.8% to defence.
Source dataset: gba_nabsfin07
For more information
- Statistics Explained article on government budget allocations for R&D (GBARD)
- Thematic section on science, technology and innovation
- Database on government budget allocations for R&D
Methodological notes
- Government budget allocations for R&D are all allocations assigned to R&D in central (federal) government, regional (state) and local (municipal) government. Therefore, they refer to budget provisions, not to actual expenditure, which may differ. Local government budget funds may not be included if their contribution is not significant or if the data cannot be collected.
- GBARD data are broken down by socioeconomic objectives in accordance with the nomenclature for the analysis and comparison of scientific programmes and budgets (NABS 2007).
- All EU countries have provisional data for 2025, except for Denmark, Bulgaria, Malta and Poland. Data flagged as provisional will be reviewed and updated by the countries in December 2026.
- Changes in GBARD per capita may reflect population changes of the countries.
