Fact of the Week: Switzerland Increased Its Public R&D Investment by 79 Percent Between 2008 and 2016, Nearly 4 Times More Than the United States

Source: Commission of Experts for Research and Innovation (EFI), “Report on research, innovation and technological performance in Germany 2019.”

Commentary: The has been a growing disparity across the globe between the governments that are choosing to prioritize innovation and those that aren’t. Recent analysis reflects this, comparing the growth of public R&D funding between 2008 and 2016 across eight major countries. It finds that Switzerland increased its public R&D investments by 79 percent over the period, followed by South Korea (56 percent), Germany (52 percent), and Sweden (43 percent). All of the remaining countries increased their R&D less than half as much as the leaders, with the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, and France increasing their public R&D investment by 20 percent, 19 percent, 15 percent, and 8 percent, respectively.