Türkiye’s gross domestic expenditure on research and development (GERD) reached 651 billion 822 million TRY in 2024, marking a substantial increase of 274 billion 279 million TRY compared to the previous year, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) reported on Monday.

The share of R&D expenditure in Türkiye’s GDP also rose to 1.46% from 1.39% in 2023, with the country’s GDP totaling 44 trillion 587 billion 225 million TRY.

The largest share of R&D spending came from financial and non-financial corporations, accounting for 64.8% of total expenditure. Higher education institutions followed with 30.9%, while general government and the private non-profit sector contributed 4.3%. Personnel costs made up the largest component of R&D expenditure at 59.5%.

In terms of funding, 53.8% of GERD came from corporate sources, while the government provided 30.4%, higher education 12.9%, foreign sources 2.9%, and other national sources 0.01%.

In 2024, Türkiye employed 310,473 full-time equivalent (FTE) R&D personnel, with the majority (67.1%) working in corporations, 30% in higher education, and 2.9% in government and non-profit organizations. Female researchers comprised 34.2% of the workforce, with their highest representation in higher education (47.9%).

Regarding educational background, 39.9% of R&D personnel held bachelor’s degrees, 30.6% held doctorates, 20.3% held master’s degrees, 4.9% had short-cycle tertiary education, and 4.4% had upper secondary education or lower.

The TR10 region (Istanbul) led in R&D expenditure with 33.4%, followed by TR51 (Ankara) at 27.8% and TR42 (Kocaeli, Sakarya, Düzce, Bolu, Yalova) at 9.4%. In terms of personnel, Istanbul again ranked first with 32.6%, followed by Ankara at 19.2% and TR42 at 8.3%.

Over half (52.7%) of corporate R&D spending was carried out in dedicated R&D centres, with large enterprises (250+ employees) responsible for 89.4% of this spending. In the manufacturing industry, 46.9% of R&D investment was directed toward high-technology enterprises, 40.2% toward medium-high technology, 8.2% medium-low technology, and 4.7% low-tech enterprises.

Interestingly, the highest number of researchers were employed by medium-high technology firms, with 31,701 employees, while high-tech firms employed 22,093 researchers.

Indirect R&D incentives in corporate R&D expenditure increased significantly, rising from 14.8% in 2015 to 25.1% in 2024. Total corporate R&D expenditure rose from 11.2 billion TRY in 2015 to 422 billion TRY in 2024, reflecting Türkiye’s growing emphasis on research and innovation as a driver of economic growth. (ILKHA)