LONDON, Nov. 21 (Xinhua) -- Government funding of businesses' civilian research and development (R&D) exceeded for the first time the amount spent on defense R&D in 2017, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said Wednesday.
The UK government's funding of businesses' R&D in 2017 was 1.8 billion pounds, an increase of 98 million pounds from 2016, representing 8 percent of total business R&D. This increase reversed the recent two-year decline, the ONS said.
Historically UK government funding was most prominent in the defense sector. For the first time UK government funding of civil R&D has overtaken that of defense, with funding in 2017 of 978 million pounds (54 percent) and 820 million pounds (46 percent) respectively, according to the ONS.
Expenditure on R&D performed by British businesses continued to grow in 2017, with their spending in the civil sector accounting for 94 percent of the total, while the remainder going to defense, ONS said.
The largest source of R&D funding in 2017 was businesses' own funds, accounting for 75 percent of total, while the only decrease in the source of funds was from overseas, including a decrease in European Commission grants, the ONS said.
In 2017 pharmaceuticals continued to be the largest product group, accounting for 18 percent of total expenditure on R&D performed in UK businesses, followed by motor vehicles and parts group.
The figures also revealed that in 2017 around 231,000 people were employed on R&D work by British businesses, the highest number recorded by ONS in records going back to 1993.
The study also showed that in 2017 the proportion of R&D performed by foreign-owned businesses in Britain overtook that of UK-owned businesses at 52.2 percent against 47.8 percent. (1 pound=1.28 U.S. dollars)
