Source : Commission for federal cooperation, Working group CFS/STAT; calculations Federal Science Policy Office, primary economic activity classification
R&D spending is a key indicator of how innovative an industry is, driving the technological advances that are vital for a sustainable future. R&D spending in the chemicals, plastics and life sciences industry totalled nearly €4.3 billion in 2017, an increase of 64% over a decade. The sector is the largest private investor in R&D, accounting for 65% of total R&D expenditure by all Belgian manufacturing companies in 2017. Life sciences companies account for 88% of the sector’s total R&D spending.
About 64% of R&D spending occurs in-house, with the balance spent by third parties on behalf of a client company. This high level of third-party spending reflects the strong degree of collaboration between companies and technology centres to boost innovation.
The R&D intensity of the Belgian economy (in both the private and public sectors) amounted to 2.7% of GDP in 2017. The R&D intensity of the sector (expressed as in-house R&D spending/value added) reached 14.1% in the same period. Thanks to these efforts, the industry plays a key role in enabling Belgium to achieve the European target of investing 3% of GDP in R&D.
