Federal R&D spending hit $4.4b in 2024-25: ABS
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The news: Australian government expenditure on research and development expenditure (R&D) rose 1% to $4.4 billion in 2024-25, compared to 2022-23, according to the latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
The context: ABS head of statistics Tom Lay stated that growth over this period marks the lowest government R&D expenditure increase since 2018-19. When adjusted for inflation, real R&D expenditure actually declined by 4%.
Lay noted that environmental sciences recorded the largest expansion, surging 55% to become the leading field of government research ahead of biomedical and clinical sciences, which only grew 14%.
However, information and computing sciences saw the steepest decline, followed by agricultural, veterinary and food sciences, which fell 25% and 11% respectively.
He added that overall government R&D spending as a proportion of GDP contracted from 0.17% in 2022-23 to 0.16% in 2024-25.
The source: ABS
