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December 09, 2020INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CHARACTERISTICS 2018 In 2018, Nova Scotia business made $151 million in-house research and development expenditures. This consisted of $143 million in current expenditures (wages, salaries, other current costs) and $8 million in capital expenditures (lands, buildings, software, equipment). Canada research and development expenditures were $19,521 million in 2018. Compared to the size of the economy, Nova Scotia research and development expenditures amount to 0.34% compared to 0.87% in Canada. Quebec, Ontario, and British Columbia have the largest share of their economy in research and development expenditures.
In 2018, there were 1,382 full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs for in-house research and development in Nova Scotia. Personnel was dived among researchers and research managers (895), research and development technical, administrative and support staff (374), and consultants and contractors (112). As a share of FTE employment, R&D personnel account for 0.34% in Nova Scotia and 0.93% in Canada. Quebec (1.27%), Ontario (1.09%), and British Columbia (1.01%) have the largest share of personnel classified as research and development.
In 2018, research and development expenditures declined 11.7% (-$20 million) compared to 2017. Nationally, expenditures were up 2.6% with growth in Newfoundland and Labrador (32.5%), New Brunswick (14.4%), Ontario (5.6%), Saskatchewan (17.6%) and British Columbia (5.3%).
Over the last four years, Nova Scotia research and development expenditures have grown on average 5.9% per year. Nationally, expenditures have grown 1.8% per year since 2014. All provinces have seen growth or minimal declines over the past four years, except Alberta which has seen R&D expenditures fall 8.3% per year from $2,154 million in 2014 to $1,520 in 2018.
Nova Scotia’s business research and development expenditures are largest in professional, scientific and technical services ($67 million) industries including computer systems, scientific research, engineering and architectural, and consulting. Manufacturing R&D expenditures were $54 million in 2018 with some of the largest expenditures in machinery manufacturing, chemical manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, food manufacturing, communication equipment and instrumentation (navigational, measuring, medical and control). Telecommunication, data processing and hosting services ($14 million), administrative and support, waste management and remediation services ($4 million), and health care and social assistance ($4 million) also had research and development expenditures in 2018.
Note - full-time equivalent workers for each province calculated based on 2,000-hour work years.
Statistics Canada. Table 27-10-0341-01 Business enterprise in-house research and development characteristics, by industry group based on the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), country of control and provinces and territories; Table 36-10-0222-01 Gross domestic product, expenditure-based, provincial and territorial, annual (x 1,000,000)
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