World Science Week: Where are we in the world?
It’s World Science Week. So, where are we in the science world? One measure showing our commitment to science is our expenditure on R&D. If we compare ourselves to the other OECD countries, we see that we are right at the bottom of the pile at 1.27% of GDP and have recently been overtaken by Hungary.
You can explore this graph for yourself by clicking the link here.
In four weeks we will vote for a new government. I blogged a link to party policies about health research last week. Labour have just released their policy and National are yet to. In the meantime, the Green party says we need another $1bn invested in R& D, which would add about 0.5% (based on a ~$200bn GDP) and United Future and Labour wish us to have at least the OECD average which means another $2bn or so investment. In the meantime, UF, Greens, and Labour all want to re-establish tax credits for R&D which is intended to stimulate private investment in R&D. If anyone knows the answer, I’d be interested to hear how many of the other OECD countries have R&D tax credits and what difference that has made to investment in R&D.
Tagged: budget, Green Party, Labour Party, National Party, OECD, OECD countries Research and Development expenditure, Research and Development, United Future, World Science Week
0 Responses to “World Science Week: Where are we in the world?”
Just yesterday Labour released its Science and Innovation Policy here http://campaign.labour.org.nz/science_and_innovation
National’s one doesn’t appear to be out yet, but I;m sure it will emerge – they did just launch their campaign this weekend.
Brilliant
Thanks Simon
I shall update posts
Part 1 of answer..
http://www.oecd.org/sti/rd-tax-stats.htm