Benchmarking Regional Innovation: A Comparison of Bavaria, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland

illustrate the extent of the differences between the study regions Table 3 gives R&D
expenditure by performing sector in 1996. Part A of the table expresses R&D
spending as a proportion of each region’s GDP. As indicated previously business and
government R&D spending in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland in 1996 as
a percentage of GDP was between half and two thirds of that of Bavaria, with R&D in
higher education at similar levels. This comparison, however, underestimates the real
difference in spending due to higher GDP per capita in Bavaria (Table 1). For
Northern Ireland this would involve a trebling of business spending on R&D, a three
to four-fold increase in government R&D spending and a doubling of spending on
research in higher education. For the Republic of Ireland a similar doubling of
business spending and three to four-fold increase in government spending would be
necessary. High levels of spending on research in higher education in the Republic of
Ireland mean that this is already in line with levels in Germany.

Even an expansion of R&D investment of this scale, however, is unlikely to be
sufficient for Northern Ireland or the Republic of Ireland to ‘catch-up’ with Bavaria
over a ten or even twenty-year horizon. Because of past investments German plants
have effectively built up a stock of R&D expertise and knowledge that it will be
difficult for Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland to match. To achieve faster
convergence would require even higher levels of R&D investment.

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