Increasing importance of universities for investment in research
Published: Thursday, Nov 23rd 2023, 10:50
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Universities are the second most important player after the private sector when it comes to investing in research and development. Their investments have increased continuously since the 2000s.
Expenditure on research and development carried out by the universities themselves amounted to around CHF 7 billion in 2021, as reported by the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) on Thursday. In 2000, investments by universities amounted to just CHF 2.4 billion.
According to the FSO, investments increased particularly between 2008 and 2017. During this period, university investment in research and development increased faster than in any other sector of the economy.
More research at universities of applied sciences
One reason for this is that more research is being carried out at universities of applied sciences and universities of teacher education, according to the FSO publication. Despite this increase, however, the universities remain the largest investors among the higher education institutions. Universities and the two Federal Institutes of Technology each pay around three quarters of the total annual expenditure.
On the other hand, investments by private companies increased relatively little. This is due to the fact that the Swiss economy was exposed to two crises, writes the FSO. These were the subprime crisis in 2008 and the lifting of the minimum exchange rate for the Swiss franc in 2015.
According to the FSO, the interplay between the increase in universities of applied sciences and the limited growth in private companies has increased the importance of the higher education sector in carrying out research and development in Switzerland. The private sector remains the most important player in terms of investment. In 2021, they amounted to CHF 17 billion, ten billion more than the universities.
Universities invested the most in the natural sciences in 2021. This accounted for more than a quarter. In second place is medicine, which received a fifth of the investment. Engineering and technology sciences and social sciences then share third place.
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