Research and Development
NOTES ON METHODOLOGY
Purpose of the survey
The purpose of the Research and Development survey is to monitor the R&D activity in the Republic of Croatia. The survey is conducted every year with the aim of collecting and publishing data on R&D personnel, expenditure and sources of funds for R&D, as well as the results of the R&D activity. The survey results enable the measurement of research and development activities in the Republic of Croatia and represent a part of the basis for adopting national policy on research and development activity and monitoring its implementation. They also represent official data on the research and development activity in the Republic of Croatia that are published in national and international publications and databases. In addition to continuous monitoring of research and development activities, the survey is important for the calculation of GDP.
The survey is conducted on the basis of the Official Statistics Act (NN, Nos 25/20 and 155/23). The legal basis of the European Union for the implementation of the survey is Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 November 2019 on European business statistics, repealing 10 legal acts in the field of business statistics. Since the beginning of 2021, the collection of R&D statistics has been based on Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197 of 30 July 2020 laying down technical specifications and arrangements pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 of the European Parliament and of the Council on European business statistics repealing 10 legal acts in the field of business statistics. The Regulation sets the framework for the collection of R&D statistics and specifies the main variables of interest and their breakdown to the predefined level of detail. Until the end of 2020, statistics on science, technology and innovation were collected based on Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 2012/995 of 26 October 2012 laying down detailed rules for the implementation of Decision No 1608/2003/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning the production and development of Community statistics on science and technology.
Legal framework
European legislation
Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 November 2019 on European business statistics, repealing 10 legal acts in the field of business statistics
Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197 of 30 July laying down technical specifications and arrangements pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 of the European Parliament and of the Council on European business statistics repealing 10 legal acts in the field of business statistics
National legislation
Official Statistics Act (NN, Nos 25/20 and 155/23)
Standards and manuals
European Business Statistics Methodological Manual for R&D Statistics (europa.eu)
Sources and methods of data collection
Data are the result of statistical processing of annual reports collected from legal units dealing with the R&D in the Republic of Croatia in the calendar year. Thus, the business sector filled out the Annual Report on R&D for Enterprises (IR-1 form), the government and private non-profit sector filled out the Annual Report on R&D for Government and Private Non-Profit Sector (IR-2 form) and institutions of higher education filled out the Annual Report on R&D for Higher Education (IR-3 form). The forms were sent to the reporting units via e-mail, along with general instructions and attachments required to fill out the forms. The reporting units returned the filled-out forms in the same way.
The reference period to which data on R&D personnel and expenditure refer is the entire calendar year.
Confidentiality
Pursuant to the Official Statistics Act (NN, Nos 25/20 and 155/23), the confidentiality of all data provided in the form by the reporting units is guaranteed. The data collected are used solely for statistical purposes and are published in aggregated form.
Coverage and comparability
The statistical survey entitled Research and Development covers legal units on the territory of the Republic of Croatia that are known or assumed to be engaged in the R&D activity. Due to the importance of research and development (R&D), which is seen as an initiator of economic growth and innovations, various data sources have been analysed in order to improve the survey coverage and to identify hitherto unknown legal units engaged in R&D. The following sources have been used: Register of Scientific Organisations of the Ministry of Science and Education, Survey on Innovation Activities in Croatian Enterprises (enterprises that indicated that they are engaged in R&D activities), Statistical Business Register of the Croatian Bureau of Statistics, previous Research and Development surveys and the project database within the Horizon 2020 programme for the Republic of Croatia for data on funds allocated by applicants (EU_CORDIS base), information on awarded grants to enterprises from the European Structural and Investment Funds, a list of scientific institutions of the Croatian Scientific Bibliography (CROSBI), a list of funded HAMAG-BICRO projects as well as a list of legal entities that have indicated the possibility of R&D activity in the Annual Report on Gross Investment in Fixed Assets (INV-P form) and the Annual Report on Income and Expenditure from Foreign Exchange and Special Foreign Transactions (US-GP form). The analysis of the mentioned sources resulted in the basic list of reporting units, to which a form was sent.
Until 2021, data were aggregated and presented at the level of legal units. Due to introduction of a statistical unit ''enterprise'', since 2022 and onwards data have been consolidated and presented at the level of the statistical unit ''enterprise''. Therefore, they are not comparable with data from previous years, which caused the break in the time series.
Publishing
Provisional data are published within 11 months after the end of the reference (reporting) year and refer to three variables (Number of active enterprises, Number of employees and self-employed persons and Net turnover). The final results for the entire set of variables are published within 19 months after the end of the reference (reporting) year. After being published in the Republic of Croatia, the data are also published by Eurostat.
Observation units
The main observation unit in the business enterprise sector in an enterprise. An enterprise is a business entity that makes an organisational unit for the production of goods and services with a certain degree of autonomy, pursuant to the Council Regulation (EEC) No 696/93 on the statistical units for the observation and analysis of the production system in the Community. Depending on business and organisational circumstances, it may be a sole legal unit or a group of legal units. Crafts, trades and free lances can also be considered enterprises.
Every enterprise as a whole is assigned a single code of the National Classification of Activities 2007 according to its main activity. The main activity is determined and updated by the Statistical Business Register (SBR) of the Croatian Bureau of Statistics. The criterion for determining the main activity is the largest share in a total value added of the enterprise, or, if it cannot be defined, supplementary criteria are applied, such as income and/or number of employed persons.
Legal entities and natural persons remained observation units in a government and private non-profit sector as well as in higher education and observed as a proxy for an enterprise.
Definitions of variables
Definitions of the R&D field are based on the international methodology – the Frascati Manual 2015 (Frascati Manual 2015: Guidelines for Collecting and Reporting Data on Research and Experimental Development, The Measurement of Scientific, Technological and Innovation Activities, publisher: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development – OECD, Paris, 2015), which is available on the link Frascati Manual 2015: Guidelines for Collecting and Reporting Data on Research and Experimental Development | en | OECD.
Research and development (R&D) comprise systematic creative work aimed at increasing knowledge about man, culture and society and its application in practice. For an activity to be an R&D activity, it must satisfy five criteria. The activity must be novel, creative, uncertain, systematic and transferable and/or reproducible. There are three types of research and development: basic research, applied research and experimental development.
Basic research is a theoretical or experimental work, which mainly aims at attaining to new knowledge about basics of phenomena and facts with no practical application.
Applied research is a theoretical or experimental work, which mainly aims at attaining to new knowledge and which is primarily focused on achieving practical objectives.
Experimental development is a systematic work based on the results of scientific research and practical experience, aimed at creating new materials, products and systems as well as at introducing new or improving existing processes.
Business enterprise sector comprises enterprises and institutions the main activity of which is production of goods and services intended for market at commercial price. The business enterprise sector includes public enterprises, as well as non-profit institutions that are market producers of goods or services.
Government sector comprises all units of central and local government, including social security funds, except institutions of higher education, as well as all non-profit institutions that are controlled by government units, and that are not themselves part of the Higher education sector.
Private non-profit sector comprises non-market, non-profit institutions serving households (that is, the general public), except those mainly controlled and financed by government, their main characteristic being that they should not be the source of revenue or profit to the institutions controlling them.
Higher education includes all institutions providing formal tertiary education programmes, whatever their source of finance or legal status, and all research institutes and centres that have their R&D activities under the direct control of, or administered by, tertiary education institutions.
Gross domestic expenditure on R&D (GERD) is the total intramural expenditure on R&D performed in the national territory during the reporting calendar year. GERD includes domestically performed R&D that is financed from abroad but excludes funding for R&D performed abroad. Intramural R&D expenditures are all current expenditures and gross fixed capital expenditures for R&D performed within reporting unit, irrespective of the source of funds.
Current expenditures comprise labour costs and other current costs used in R&D.
Labour costs include compensations of employees (wages and salaries and social contributions paid by an employer), vocational training costs and other labour costs.
Other current costs comprise material costs, costs of persons hired under contractual agreement of author’s contract, acquiring services to support intramural R&D and other costs (costs of indirect services).
Capital expenditures are the annual gross amount paid for the acquisition of fixed assets that are used repeatedly or continuously in the performance of R&D for more than one year. They comprise investing in land and buildings, machinery and equipment, computer software and patents, licences, studies and projects.
Total R&D personnel include all persons engaged directly in R&D, whether employed by the reporting unit or external contributors (persons hired under contractual agreement or author’s contract) fully integrated into the unit’s R&D activities, as well as those providing direct services for the R&D activities (such as R&D managers, administrators, technicians). According to the recommendations of the Frascati Manual 2015, persons who work less than 10% of full-time hours are not included.
Researchers are professionals engaged in the conception or creation of new knowledge. They conduct research and improve or develop concepts, theories, models, techniques instrumentation, software or operational methods.
Technicians and equivalent staff are persons whose main tasks require technical knowledge and experience in one or more fields of engineering, the physical and life sciences, or the social sciences, humanities and the arts. They participate in R&D by performing scientific and technical tasks involving the application of concepts and operational methods and the use of research equipment, normally under the supervision of researchers.
Expert associates are persons with higher education employed to perform expert jobs (librarians, IT professionals, information specialists, etc.), who participate in the scientific and research and R&D work, but are not the managers of R&D projects.
Other supporting staff are employees who perform all the activities that directly contribute to the R&D performance, which are not performed by researchers or technicians and expert associates. These activities include secretarial and other administrative tasks, the management of materials or equipment required for the R&D project implementation, supporting activities related to R&D such as planning, information and financial support, legal services, assistance in the assembly, adjustment, maintenance and repair of scientific equipment and instruments. Managerial and administrative staff who mainly deal with financial and personnel issues and general administration also perform the aforementioned activities if their activities are directly related to R&D projects.
Full-time equivalent (FTE) is expressed in person-years and presents time as a share of full working time in which persons in employment are engaged in the work related to R&D (for example, if a person was engaged in works related to R&D for six months in full working time, it is expressed as 0.5 full-time equivalent – 0.5 FTE).
Activity groups – for the purpose of this survey, the activities of the NKD 2007. classification were classified into specially formed groups in such a manner that some sections, groups or classes were grouped together. As a result, 69 activity groups were formed. They are in line with the NKD 2007. classification and thus comparable with the NACE and ISIC classifications.
Industry orientation of R&D refers to the activity group from the NKD 2007. classification that is most likely to use the expected results of R&D project. Since enterprises can have several production lines or serve customers that belong to a broad spectrum of activities, one enterprise can report several activity groups to which R&D is oriented. If an enterprise conducts R&D for own needs, the activity group to which R&D is oriented is the same as the main activity of the enterprise (or the secondary, if applicable). If the results of the R&D activity of the enterprise are used by one or more enterprises belonging to one or more different activities, the users of these activity results are identified with their NKD code.
Socio-economic objective represents basic allocation of funds for the R&D set up by OECD and expressed in 13 categories.
Abbreviations
EC European Community
EEC European Economic Community
EU European Union
Eurostat Statistical Office of the European Communities
GDP gross domestic product
GERD gross domestic expenditure on R&D
HAMAG-BICRO Croatian Agency for SMEs, Innovations and Investments
HR_NUTS 2021 - HR NUTS 2 National Classification of Statistical Regions, 2021 version - 2nd level statistical regions
ISIC International Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities
NACE Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community
NKD 2007 National Classification of Activities, 2007 version
NN Narodne novine, official gazette of the Republic of Croatia
OECD Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development
R&D research and development
Symbols
- no occurrence
0,0 value not zero but less than 0.05 of the unit of measure used