According to the Czech Statistical Office, EU’s public expenditure on R&D accounted for 0.7% of EU’s GDP in 2014, compared with 0.8% of GDP in the United States of America and Japan. The Czech public expenditure on R&D (CZK 27bn, i.e. 0.6% of the country’s GDP) amounted to 1% of the EU’s expenditure volume.

In the Czech Republic, public expenditure on R&D has stagnated over the past three years. Half of the expenditure volume was allocated in the capital city of Prague and one-sixth in the South-Moravian region. The funds have been used for the long-term development of research organizations, specific research projects at universities, and international cooperation. The Ministry of Education distributed CZK 11bn, followed by the Czech Academy of Science (CZK 4bn), Grant Agency of the Czech Republic, Technology Agency of the Czech Republic (CZK 3bn) and the Ministry of Industry and Trade (CZK 1.6bn).   

In 2014, 28 universities and 72 research organizations (most of them falling under the Czech Academy of Science) received direct state funding. Read also an article published by the ceskapozice.cz server about the recently-conducted formal international assessment of research activites and results of the Academy of Science of the Czech Republic.

Private entities (80% of them were private companies) received direct state funding worth CZK 3.4bn in 2014. More than one-third of the volume was invested in the manufacturing sector (engineering, computer production, electronic, optical devices). Read details in Czech.

Also, the number of businesses that apply tax deduction for R&D has been rising, from 454 companies in 2005 to 1,264 in 2014 (two-thirds were local entities, one-third were foreign entities), the Czech Statistical Office says.