Total expenditure by General Government on Research and Development in 2008 amounted to €10.7 million, a decrease of €0.2 million over the previous year.

The activity of the General Government Sector in research and development (R&D) was measured through a survey carried out during the first quarter of 2009. A total of 146 units responded to the survey, of which nine were actively engaged in R&D projects during 2008. Two of these units were government departments, while seven were Extra Budgetary Units (EBUs).

Total estimated expenditure by General Government on R&D activities amounted to €10.7 million in 2008, down by 2.2 per cent over 2007. Of this expenditure, 65.8 per cent went to meet labour costs, 28.2 per cent to other recurrent expenditures, while 6.0 per cent was spent on capital projects. In line with past years, during 2008 total R&D expenditure in the General Government sector was highest in the field of Social Sciences, which accounted for 30.2 per cent of total expenditure, followed by Medical Sciences with 20.2 per cent. Virtually all the R&D expenditure in Social Sciences was incurred by the EBUs.

In 2008, 1,047 employees were engaged in R&D work within the General Government Sector. Of these 1,013 were engaged in R&D activities on a part-time basis. There was a predominance of men among PhD researchers and technicians, while women were in the majority among support staff.

The highest employment activity in R&D was observed in the Medical Sciences, accounting for 324 employees in 2008. This was followed by the Social Sciences, with 276 employees. Similar to the trend observed in previous years, the EBU sub-sector benefited from the broadest inflow of funds in 2008. In Malta, the Higher Education Sector (HES) is included within the EBU category.