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- October 30, 202615°
- BIST10010,951-1.92%
- USD49.79+0.05%
- EUR55.52-0.41%
- GOLD3,975.60-1.38%
- INTEREST36.00%-1.00
- BITCOIN77,349-0.57%
- October 30, 202615°
Türkiye's R&D spending rose to 980.4 billion lira in 2025
Türkiye's gross domestic expenditure on R&D increased by 328 billion 607 million lira year on year in 2025, reaching 980 billion 428 million lira. Businesses accounted for the largest share of spending at 65%, while the number of R&D personnel reached 317,982.
The Turkish Statistical Institute announced the results of its 2025 Research and Development Activities Survey. Gross domestic expenditure on R&D increased by 328 billion 607 million lira year on year in 2025, reaching 980 billion 428 million lira.
R&D expenditure as a share of gross domestic product also rose from 1.46% in 2024 to 1.5% in 2025. Financial and non-financial corporations accounted for the largest share of spending at 65%, followed by higher education institutions at 30.3% and general government and non-profit institutions at 4.7%.
Businesses led R&D financing
Financial and non-financial corporations financed 52.5% of R&D expenditure. General government contributed 31.1%, higher education institutions 14.1%, foreign sources 2.3% and other domestic sources approximately 0.01%.
Personnel costs constituted the largest expenditure item at 58.8%. Financial and non-financial corporations recorded R&D expenditure of 637 billion 252 million lira in 2025. Of this amount, 54.9% was spent at R&D centers, and enterprises with 250 or more employees accounted for 89.5% of spending at those centers.
R&D personnel count approached 318,000
A total of 317,982 people worked as R&D personnel on a full-time equivalent basis in 2025. Financial and non-financial corporations employed 67.9% of this personnel, higher education institutions 29% and general government and non-profit institutions 3%.
The number of female R&D personnel reached 108,453, accounting for 34.1% of total personnel. Women represented 48.1% of personnel in higher education, 32.2% in general government and non-profit institutions, and 28.2% in financial and non-financial corporations.
Bachelor's degree holders constituted the largest group among R&D personnel by educational attainment, at 40.6%. Those with a doctoral or equivalent qualification accounted for 31%, master's degree holders 19.4%, graduates of vocational colleges 4.9%, and those with a high school education or below 4.1%.
Based on full-time equivalent figures, bachelor's degree holders accounted for 49.6%, doctoral or equivalent graduates 21.4%, master's degree holders 18.5%, vocational college graduates 5.9%, and those with a high school education or below 4.6%.
Istanbul ranked first in R&D expenditure
The TR10 region (Istanbul) ranked first in the regional distribution of total R&D expenditure in 2025, with 31.8%. Istanbul was followed by the TR51 region (Ankara) at 30% and the TR42 region (Kocaeli, Sakarya, Düzce, Bolu and Yalova) at 9.5%.
Istanbul employed 32.2% of total R&D personnel, followed by Ankara with 19.8% and the TR42 region, covering Kocaeli, Sakarya, Düzce, Bolu and Yalova, with 8.4%.
High-tech activities led manufacturing R&D
Manufacturing industry R&D expenditure totaled 322 billion 656 million lira in 2025. Enterprises engaged in high-tech activities accounted for 47.7% of this spending.
Of R&D expenditure in manufacturing, 40.7% came from enterprises engaged in medium-high-tech activities, 7.2% from those in medium-low-tech activities and 4.4% from those in low-tech activities.
Among enterprises conducting R&D in manufacturing, the largest number of researchers—32,399—worked at businesses engaged in medium-high-tech activities. They were followed by enterprises engaged in high-tech activities, with 23,298 researchers. Enterprises engaged in medium-high-tech activities also ranked first in the number of full-time equivalent researchers, with 29,697.
Share of indirect R&D incentives increased
The share of indirect R&D incentives in the R&D expenditure of financial and non-financial corporations rose from 14.8% in 2015 to 26.5% in 2025. The same corporations' R&D expenditure increased from 11.2 billion lira in 2015 to 637.3 billion lira in 2025.
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