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EXPLANATORY NOTES


INTRODUCTION

1 The statistics presented in this publication are a summary of expenditure and human resources devoted to R&D performed in Australia by organisations within the Business, Government, Private non-profit and Higher education sectors for the 2004-05 reference period.

2 The data in this publication have been released previously, at more detailed levels, on an individual sector basis (see paragraph 10).

DATA SOURCES

3 Data from each sector were collected separately in the surveys of Research and Experimental Development:

• Business - compiled from data collected from businesses in the Survey of Research and Experimental Development, Businesses in respect of the year ended 30 June 2005. The survey was conducted by mail questionnaire and a 92.6% response was obtained.
• Government and Private non-profit - compiled from data collected from organisations in the Survey of Research and Experimental Development, Government and Private non-profit organisations in respect of the year ended 30 June 2005. The survey was conducted by mail questionnaire and a 96.8% response rate was obtained.
• Higher education - compiled from data collected from universities in the Survey of Research and Experimental Development, Higher Education in respect of the year ended 31 December 2004.

Expenditure on Gross Domestic Product, current prices
	1996-97	1998-99	2000-01	2002-03	2004-05
	$m	$m	$m	$m	$m
GDP	545 736	607 863	689 340	782 798	893 704
National Income, Expenditure and Product, Australian National Accounts, March Quarter 2006 (cat. no. 5206.0)

Gross State Product, current prices
	NSW	Vic.	Qld	SA	WA	Tas.	NT	ACT
	$m	$m	$m	$m	$m	$m	$m	$m
2002-03	275 358	197 266	132 432	53 635	85 470	13 502	9 042	16 091
2004-05	305 437	222 022	158 506	59 819	100 900	16 114	10 418	18 306
Australian National Accounts, State Accounts (cat. no. 5220.0)

DEFINITIONS

5 R&D as collected by the ABS is defined in accordance with the OECD standard as comprising 'creative work undertaken on a systematic basis in order to increase the stock of knowledge, including knowledge of man, culture and society, and the use of this stock of knowledge to devise new applications'. Although outside the economic boundary of R&D as defined by the OECD, R&D performed overseas by Australian businesses is included in the data in this publication.

6 For a more comprehensive interpretation of the definition of R&D activity, see the Australian Standard Research Classification (ASRC), 1998 (cat. no. 1297.0) or refer to the OECD publication Proposed Standard Practice for Surveys on Research and Experimental Development ('Frascati Manual' 2002), OECD, Paris, 2003.

SCOPE

7 The sector classification used in the compilation of these statistics is adapted from the guidelines specified by the OECD for use in the conduct of R&D surveys. There are four distinct sectors:

• Business - includes all businesses whose primary activity is the production of goods or services for sale to the general public at a price intended to cover at least the cost of production, and the private non-profit institutions mainly serving them.
  • The ABS Business R&D survey excludes businesses mainly engaged in Agriculture, forestry and fishing (i.e. industries in Division A of the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC), 1993 (cat. no. 1292.0).
• Government - includes all Commonwealth, state and local government departments and authorities.
  • The ABS Government R&D survey excludes local government, universities (included in the Higher education sector) and public sector organisations mainly engaged in trading or financial activities (included in the Business sector).
• Higher education - includes all universities and other institutions of post-secondary education whatever their source of finance or legal status.
  • The ABS Higher education R&D survey excludes other higher education institutions, such as colleges of Technical and Further Education colleges.
• Private non-profit - includes private or semi-public incorporated organisations which are established with the intention of not making a profit.

LOCATION

9 With the exception of the Higher education sector, all location data represent the region(s) in which the sectors performed the R&D. For the Higher education sector, location represents the main campus or head office state/territory site of the reporting University, with the exception of the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA) which is shown against the Australian Capital Territory.

RELATED PUBLICATIONS

10 Users may also wish to refer to the following publications:

Australian Bureau of Statistics 1998, Australian Standard Research Classification (ASRC), cat. no. 1297.0, ABS, Canberra
Australian Bureau of Statistics 2006, Research and Experimental Development, Businesses, Australia, 2004-05, cat. no. 8104.0, ABS, Canberra
Australian Bureau of Statistics 2006, Research and Experimental Development, Government and Private Non-Profit Organisations, Australia, 2004-05, cat. no. 8109.0, ABS, Canberra
Australian Bureau of Statistics 2006, Research and Experimental Development, Higher Education Organisations, Australia, 2004, cat. no. 8111.0, ABS, Canberra
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development 2006, Main Science and technology Indicators 2006/1, OECD, Paris
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development 2003, Proposed Standard Practice for Surveys on Research and Experimental Development ('Frascati Manual' 2002), OECD, Paris.

ABS DATA AVAILABLE ON REQUEST

12 As well as the statistics included in this and related publications, the ABS may have other relevant data available on request. Inquiries should be made to the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070.

ROUNDING

13 Where figures have been rounded, discrepancies may occur between sums of the component items and totals.