Main methodological reference

• Wydra, S. and Kroll, H., Methods to define indicators on research and innovation in the bioeconomy, Ronzon, T., Lasarte Lopez, J. and M`barek, R. editor(s), Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2024, doi:10.2760/63272, JRC137086.

Related documents and data sources

• Lasarte-López, Jesús; González-Hermoso, Hugo; Tamosiunas, Saulius; Porc, Olaf; Poranki, Narendar; M'barek, Robert. Jobs and wealth in the EU bioeconomy. European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC) [Dataset], 2025.
• Ronzon, T. et al. A systematic approach to understanding and quantifying the EU's bioeconomy. Bio-based and Applied Economics. 2017, 6(1), 1-17.
• Ronzon, T.; M'Barek, R. Socioeconomic Indicators to Monitor the EU's Bioeconomy in Transition. Sustainability 2018, 10, 1745.
• Lasarte-Lopez, J., Mbarek, R., Ronzon, T., & Tamosiunas, S. (2023). EU Bioeconomy Monitoring System indicators update. Jobs and value added in the bioeconomy.
• Ronzon, T. et al. Developments of Economic Growth and Employment in Bioeconomy Sectors across the EU. Sustainability. 2020, 12 (11), 4507.
• Ronzon, T., Gurria, P., Carus, M., Cingiz, K., El-Meligi, A., Hark, N., Iost, S., M’Barek, R., Philippidis, G., van Leeuwen, M., & Wesseler, J. Assessing the bioeconomy’s contribution to evidence-based policy: A comparative analysis of value added measurements. Bio-Based and Applied Economics. 2024, 13(4), 317–331.
• Lasarte-López, J., M’barek, R. The EU bioeconomy at a glance: Focus on economic value added, employment and innovation. European Commission, Seville, 2025, JRC143759.
• Lasarte-López, J., González-Hermoso, H., M’barek, R. The Life Sciences sectors in the UE: drivers of economic growth and innovation. European Commission, Seville, 2025, JRC142396.

Methodology

The indicator provided in this dashboard is Business expenditure on R&D, understood as the total costs incurred by companies with the purpose of creating new knowledge or applying existing knowledge to develop new or significantly improved products, processes, or services.

This indicator only considers the expenditure by enterprises. Public expenditure is not covered.

The same sector scope as proposed in Ronzon et al. (2017) and Ronzon and M’barek (2018) and currently used in the Jobs and Wealth in the European Union Bioeconomy dataset will be used. These sectors are defined using an output-based criterion. This includes sectors that only produce or process biomass (e.g. agriculture or food manufacturing), as well as those sectors whose production is only partially bio-based (e.g. chemicals or furniture manufacturing). The sectors covered are primary production (agriculture, forestry and fishing) as well as bio-based manufacturing activities (e.g. food manufacturing or bio-based chemicals) the production of bioenergy, waste treatment and remediation activities, or bio-based construction among others.

Additionally, R&D expenditures of Scientific research and experimental development activites (NACE code M7211) are also considered because of its transversal nature. Indeed, R&D expenditures of dedicated R&D firms like labs or providers of engineering services add to the R&D expenditures in the core sectors (Wydra and Kroll, 2024).

The table below details the specific sector scope covered in this dashboard

As for data sources, private R&D investments are reported for 2-digit NACE sectors in the Eurostat (data source: rd_e_berdindr2). The only exception are values for The Netherlands, for which no values are reported by Eurostat between 2013 and 2021. This information is retrieved from its national Statistical Office (link). To address missing data, the procedure outlined in Lasarte-López et al. (2023) is applied.

Wydra and Kroll (2024) propose to adjust the partially bio-based sectors by combining their expenditure values with the same output bio-based shares than that of the Jobs and Wealth in the European Union Bioeconomy dataset. According to Wydra and Kroll (2024), the output-based approach is considered more adequate for the estimation of private R&D investment in the bioeconomy because the size of a sector’s own activity is highly relevant for R&D in comparison to other approaches, such as using the (mostly physical) input-based weights from other sectors as a criterion to adjust total sector figures.