Türkiye boosted its gross domestic expenditure on research and development (R&D) by TL 274.28 billion (around $6.5 billion) last year compared to a year earlier, according to the official data released on Monday.

Goss domestic R&D expenditure rose to TL 651.8 billion in 2024, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said in a new survey.

Moreover, the share of gross domestic R&D expenditure in gross domestic product (GDP) rose to 1.46% last year, the statistics agency said. This compares to a share of 1.39% in 2023.

Financial and non-financial corporations held the largest share of R&D expenditures at 64.8%. Higher education followed with 30.9%.

The share of general government R&D expenditures, which includes R&D expenditures made by the private non-profit sector, was calculated as 4.3% of total expenditures. Personnel expenses made up the largest component of R&D spending at 59.5%.

In 2024, 53.8% of R&D expenditures were financed by financial and non-financial corporations. The general government covered 30.4%, higher education institutions 12.9%, foreign sources 2.9%, and other domestic sources about 0.01%.

R&D personnel

In 2024, a total of 310,473 people worked as R&D personnel, measured in full-time equivalent (FTE). By sector, 67.1% of all R&D personnel in FTE were employed by financial and non-financial corporations last year, 30% by higher education, and 2.9% (including nonprofit organizations) by the general government sector.

The number of female R&D personnel in FTE was 106,074 people in 2024, constituting 34.2% of the total R&D workforce. The percentage of female R&D personnel in FTE was 47.9% in higher education, 30.6% in general government (including nonprofit organizations), and 28.2% in financial and non-financial corporations.

When examining the educational levels of R&D personnel, 39.9% hold a bachelor’s degree. This was followed by 30.6% with a doctorate or equivalent, 20.3% with a master’s degree, 4.9% with a vocational associate degree and 4.4% with a high school education or less.

According to the NUTS Level 2 statistical regional classification, the region with the highest R&D spending in 2024 was TR10 (Istanbul), accounting for 33.4% of total R&D spending, followed by TR51 (Ankara) with 27.8% and TR42 (Kocaeli, Sakarya, Düzce, Bolu, Yalova) with 9.4%.

Top R&D spenders

Of the TL 422.4 billion of R&D expenditures by financial and non-financial corporations in 2024, 52.7% was carried out in R&D centers. Of the R&D expenses in these centers, 89.4% was made by enterprises employing 250 people or more.

When enterprises in the manufacturing industry conducting R&D activities are classified by technology level, 46.9% of the TL 210.5 billion of R&D expenditures in the manufacturing industry in 2024 were conducted by enterprises operating in high technology activities.

Of the total R&D spending in manufacturing, 40.2% was conducted by medium-high technology enterprises, 8.2% by medium-low technology, and 4.7% by low technology enterprises.

An analysis of the number of researchers in manufacturing enterprises conducting R&D activities in 2024 showed that the largest number, 31,701, were employed by medium-high technology enterprises. This was followed by 22,093 researchers in high technology enterprises.

Considering the number of researchers in FTE, the highest number or 28,957, was found in medium-high technology enterprises.

Indirect R&D incentives

The share of indirect R&D incentives in the R&D expenditures of financial and non-financial corporations, which was 14.8% in 2015, rose to 25.1% in 2024.

The R&D expenditures of financial and non-financial corporations, which stood at TL 11.2 billion in 2015, reached TL 422 billion last year, respectively.

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