Andorra's Internal R&D Workforce Hits 1,479 in 2024 with €13.9M Spend
Andorran companies boosted R&D efforts, employing 1,479 staff—mostly in services—with services dominating at 78.7% and expenditures doubling since.
Key Points
- 1,479 R&D workers: 78.7% in services, 949 men/530 women, 1.7M hours logged.
- €13.9M internal spend (up from €5.1M in 2022): 46.8% basic research, 41.5% infrastructure.
- Gender split: Men 54.4% engineering/tech, women 26.2% humanities; similar doctorate rates.
- 11.7% firms did R&D; 7.5% innovated goods, 8.3% services; env. factors key (60%).
Andorran companies employed 1,479 workers in internal research and development (R&D) activities in 2024, according to the latest figures released this week by the Department of Statistics. The services sector led with 1,164 staff, representing 78.7% of the total workforce.
Of the employees, 949 were men and 530 women, logging nearly 1.7 million effective hours on R&D, supplemented by around 90,000 hours from external personnel embedded in internal teams. Role distributions highlighted gender differences: men comprised 8% researchers, 57% technicians, and 35.1% in support or auxiliary roles, while women made up 13.1% researchers, 24.7% technicians, and 62.2% in support positions.
Qualifications were comparable across genders, with 23.6% of men and 24.6% of women holding doctorates or degrees over 240 ECTS credits, such as in engineering, master's programs, or health sciences. Most workers fell into the 25-54 age bracket. Men focused heavily on engineering and technology (54.4%), whereas women's fields were more varied, with 26.2% in humanities and arts and 24.5% in engineering and technology.
Internal R&D expenditure totaled €13.9 million, a substantial rise from €5.1 million in 2022, funded primarily by company resources. Allocations went 46.8% to basic research, 29.2% to applied research, and 24.1% to experimental development. Priorities included infrastructure (41.5%) and non-oriented research (21.9%).
Some 11.7% of companies pursued internal R&D, with 3.7% doing so continuously and 8% occasionally; biological sciences and technologies accounted for just 0.3%. External R&D purchases reached €13.1 million, split between €3.9 million locally and €9.2 million overseas.
Innovation metrics showed 7.5% of firms launching significantly improved goods and 8.3% new or enhanced services. Process innovations were mainly in-house (48.5%). Among innovators, acquiring machinery, software, intellectual property, or buildings for non-R&D activities stood out, affecting 7.5% of companies at a cost of €12.6 million. Over 60% viewed environmental factors as quite or very important. Top barriers included lack of collaboration partners, rated quite or very significant by 63-81% across obstacles.
Original Sources
This article was aggregated from the following Catalan-language sources: