Türkiye’s research, development spending hit $127.5B in decade

By Zeynep Duyar

ANKARA (AA) – Türkiye’s research and development (R&D) spending totaled one trillion Turkish liras ($127.5 billion) in the 2014-2023 period, according to data from the country’s statistical bureau TurkStat.

Data showed that Türkiye’s R&D spending in 2014 was at $7.9 billion and this figure rose to $8.3 billion in 2015. Fast-forward to 2021, R&D spending reached $11.4 billion, and it rose to $11.9 billion in 2022.

R&D spending in the country saw a record high of $15.8 billion in 2023, and the increases between 2014 to 2023 recorded a 21.5 times surge, the data showed.

While the ratio of gross domestic product (GDP) to R&D spending was 1.01% in 2014, it climbed to 1.42% in 2023.

More than half of the financing for R&D spending was sourced from companies in the nine-year period, while the government’s contribution made up 32% in the same period.

The total number of full time equivalent (FTE) R&D personnel was increased from over 155,400 in 2014 to over 290,800 last year, 34.1% of which were made up of women. The share of women among the total number of FTE R&D personnel was 30.2% in 2014.

The statistics show that 38.3% of R&D personnel hold a bachelor’s degree in 2023, while those with a doctorate or equivalent degree account for 21.4%. People with a vocational school diploma made up 4.9% of the total number of R&D personnel, while those with only a high school diploma constituted for 4.4%.

Turkish capital Ankara had the highest R&D spending last year, as was the case in 2014, followed by Istanbul, and the provinces of Kocaeli, Sakarya, Duzce, Bolu, and Yalova.

As for technology, the data showed that medium-high tech investments took the lead from 2015 to 2017.

High-tech R&D spending was at $845 million in 2015 and it rose to $2.7 billion as of most recent figures.

The manufacturing industry’s R&D spending reached $5.8 billion last year and high-tech activities made up 47.5%.

The US dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate was at 7.84 on average during the last decade, according to the Turkish Central Bank’s figures.

*Writing by Emir Yildirim in Istanbul