Austria likely to invest 3.34% of GDP in research this year

VIENNA, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 24th Apr, 2026) According to a global estimate by Statistik Austria, approximately €17.6 billion will be spent on research and development (R&D) in Austria in 2026. The research intensity—the share of R&D expenditure in nominal gross domestic product (GDP)—is expected to be 3.34%. While slightly lower than the peak of 3.39% in 2025, it remains at a high level.

“This year, Austria is estimated to invest about 17.6 billion Euros in research and development. This corresponds to 3.34% of economic output," said Manuela Lenk, Director of Statistics at Statistik Austria. "With this value, Austria ranks third in the EU for research expenditure.”

R&D expenditure is financed from a variety of sources. Domestic companies will finance around €8.9 billion in 2026, or about 50% of total research expenditure. This includes 7 percentage points of benefits from tax-based research promotion via the research premium.

The public sector is expected to spend almost €5.8 billion in 2026, accounting for 33% of total R&D funding. Of this, €4.8 billion comes from the Federal government (Bund), while the federal states (Länder) report spending around €770 million. Around €2.9 billion (16%) is financed from abroad, mostly through financing flows within large multinational corporations.

At the European level, preliminary data for 2024 shows that Sweden has the highest research intensity at 3.56%, followed by Belgium at 3.36%. Austria, at 3.34%, continues to have the third-highest research intensity within the EU. Germany’s research intensity was 3.13%, while large EU states such as France (2.18%) and Italy (1.38%) had research intensities below the EU-27 average of 2.24%.