Turkey spent TL 29.8 billion ($8.17 billion) for research and development (R&D) in 2017, the country's statistical authority announced yesterday.

The Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said gross domestic expenditure on research and development (GERD) in 2017 increased 21.2 percent on a yearly basis.

Turkey's GERD to gross domestic production (GDP) ratio was 0.96 percent last year, compared to the 0.94 percent GERD/GDP ratio in 2016. Since the figure was 0.81 percent in 2009, it has gradually increased in the last decade. "Research and development expenditure was financed by financial and non-financial corporations by 49.4 percent in 2017," the institute said. "This was followed by the general government by 33.6 percent, higher education by 13.3 percent, foreign funds by 3.5 percent and other national sources by 0.1 percent, respectively," it said.

The official report reveals that the total number of full-time equivalent research and development personnel surged 12 percent year-on-year to reach 136,953 last year. "Regarding personnel distribution by sectors, 57.3 percent were employed in financial and non-financial corporations, 35.4 percent were employed in higher education and 7.4 percent were employed in general government, including private non-profit as well in 2017," TurkStat said.

The institute also said that the total number of female personnel was 49,235 - 32 percent of all R&D personnel. "The ratio of female research and development personnel in financial and non-financial corporations was 25.1 percent," it said. "This was followed by general government at 28.6 percent and higher education with 44 percent."