Clear concentration of research and development in Norwegian business

Norwegian businesses spent NOK 7.3 billion on in-house research and development in 1995. The scope of the 1995 survey has been expanded in comparison to earlier, but compared to the corresponding statistical basis in the previous survey for 1993, there was a seven per cent increase in the two-year period. At constant prices, the increase came to one per cent. The total number of R&D man-years carried out by Norwegian business and industry increased by six per cent, to 9,500.

The survey for 1995 was expanded with a selection of businesses with fewer than 50 employees in the industries that traditionally have been covered, and with companies in several service industries. The survey shows that R&D activities are clearly lower in these new groups. Fourteen per cent of businesses with fewer than 50 employees report that they carry out R&D, while the share for companies with more than 50 employees is 28 per cent. Businesses in these new groups also have lower R&D costs per unit, confirming that R&D activities in Norway are concentrated in certain industries and large organizations.

A very high percentage of the R&D carried out by businesses, 88 per cent, is financed by in-house funds and companies within the same group. Oil companies have traditionally contributed significant amounts to R&D financing, but the percentage has now dropped from seven per cent in 1993 to four per cent in 1995. Government funding accounts for about six per cent and is at about the same level as in 1993.

R&D man-years totalled 24,000 in 1995. Measured in terms of executed R&D, businesses accounted for 39 per cent of research activities, institutes 32 percent and universities and colleges 29 per cent. Combined cost of R&D totalled NOK 16 billion in 1995.

New Statistics

Corporate research and development activities, 1995.
Statistics are published every other year in the Weekly Bulletin of Statistics. More information: Ole Skorge, tel. +47 21 09 44 23, e-mail: osk@ssb.no, Kjetil Kragset, tel. +47 21 09 47 59, e-mail: kjk@ssb.no or Frank Foyn, tel. +47 21 09 47 58, e-mail: frf@ssb.no.

Weekly Bulletin issue no. 15, 1997