Türkiye over last 9 years spent record $38.1B on R&D

By Zeynep Duyar and Emir Yildirim

ANKARA (AA) — Türkiye’s research and development spending in 2015–2024 totaled a record $38.1 billion, led by efforts and projects in defense, aviation, and space technologies, according to the country’s statistical office TurkStat.

R&D spending in Türkiye rose from $540.9 million in 2015 to $2.4 billion in 2021, $4.7 billion in 2022, $8.9 billion in 2023, and then $15.5 billion in 2024, the data showed.

The rate of R&D spending to gross domestic product (GDP) surged from 0.9% in 2015 to 1.46% in 2024, when Türkiye’s GDP was a little over $1 trillion.

More than half of R&D spending was financed by companies, while the state contribution stood at 32.1%.

Medium-high technology development led in R&D spending in 2015-2017, while investments in high-tech gained momentum when the Turkish Industry and Technology Ministry implemented the National Technology Initiative strategy plan.

R&D spending in high tech rose over 42-fold from $52.4 million in 2015 to $2.3 billion in 2024.

-Women and educational background

In the manufacturing industry, companies with high-tech operations accounted for 46.9% of the total R&D spending of $5 billion, followed by medium-tech operations with 40.2%, medium-low tech with 8.2%, and 4.7% with low-tech operations.

The total number of R&D workers surged by 193,568 in 2015–2025, while the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) employees over the same period more than doubled from 119,905 to 370,473.

Some 106,074 of Türkiye’s R&D workers were women last year, or 34.2% of the total, up from the 31.4% share women had in 2015, which is when they accounted for 43,048 workers.

As for the educational background of R&D employees, data showed that 39.9% held a bachelor’s degree, followed by 30.6% with doctorates or equivalent degrees, 20.3% with a master’s degree, 4.9% with a vocational university degree, and 4.4% with a high school diploma or lower.

Istanbul saw the highest R&D spending last year, as it did in 2015, followed by Ankara and then the northwestern cities of Kocaeli, Sakarya, Duzce, Bolu, and Yalova.