The latest Women and Innovation in 2024 report highlights the performance of Spanish industry in terms of innovation. The document compiles the figures between the periods 2020 and 2022 and highlights the position of industrial activity in the face of innovation and reaffirms that it is recovering after the effects of the pandemic, but that it is still suffering.
The report points out that information and communications companies account for the highest percentage of total expenditure on innovative activities with 3.6 billion euros, 17.5% of the total. The second branch of activity with the highest expenditure on innovation is Professional, scientific and technical activities, which account for 16.2% of the total, amounting to almost 3,390 million euros, 81.2% of which comes from internal R&D expenditure. This is followed by activities dedicated to the motor industry. In sixth position is the pharmaceutical activity, which also invests in internal R&D improvements, and in ninth position is the chemical activity, which, as in the case of pharmaceuticals, is committed to improvements and advances in internal R&D.
In the case of the Biotechnology sector, expenditure on internal R&D activities was 2,270 million euros, representing 13.2% of total expenditure on internal R&D activities, which shows the size of this knowledge-intensive sector.
Although the results for 2023 are also known, the National Institute of Statistics states that spending on internal R&D by the Spanish business fabric increased by 15.8% compared to the previous year and represented 1.49% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
In terms of internal R&D expenditure and personnel by autonomous communities, Madrid leads with 6,039,560 million euros, Catalonia with 5,364,909 million euros of internal R&D expenditure in all sectors, and in third place, with a difference of more than three million euros, Andalusia with 2,285,666 million euros of internal R&D expenditure in 2023.