Research and Experimental Development, Government and Private Non-Profit Organisations, Australia methodology

The statistics presented in this release have been compiled from data collected in the Survey of Research and Experimental Development (R&D), Government and Private Non-Profit Organisations. The Survey of R&D, Government and Private Non-Profit Organisations is a biennial collection based on a financial year reference period.

The Survey of R&D, Government and Private Non-Profit Organisations aims to be a complete enumeration of Australian government and private non-profit organisations with intramural expenditure on R&D during the reference period. 

Intramural expenditure, which is defined as expenditure for R&D performed by in scope institutions during the reference period irrespective of the source of funds, is included in the survey. Expenditure made outside the institution but in support of intramural R&D is included. For further information, refer to the OECD Frascati Manual 2015. Intramural expenditure includes research performed by institutions:

• as a participant in unincorporated Cooperative Research Centres (CRCs); and 
• on behalf of other legal entities where the institution maintains full management and control of the project.

R&D performed by in scope organisations, where the R&D is controlled by other legal entities, is excluded from the survey. The R&D performed by these entities will be in scope of the relevant R&D sector (business or higher education).

From the 2004-05 cycle of the Survey of R&D, Government and Private Non-Profit Organisations, the scope for the government and private non-profit sectors has been based on the Standard Institutional Sector Classification of Australia (SISCA); more specifically, Sector 3 (General Government) and Sector 5 (Not-For-Profit Institutions (NPIs) Serving Households).

Some information about SISCA Sector 3 and Sector 5 is provided below. For further details about the ABS sector classifications, refer to Standard Economic Sector Classifications of Australia (SESCA) 2008.

The General Government sector comprises all government units of the Australian government, each state and territory government, and all local government authorities. It includes courts, the Governor General's office, public universities, government departments, and all resident non-market Not-For-Profit Institutions (NPIs) that are controlled and mainly financed by those government units. 

While the Government sector for the Survey of R&D, Government and Private Non-Profit Organisations is based on SISCA, the survey excludes higher education institutions, e.g., universities (which are included in the Survey of R&D, Higher Education Organisations), as per the Frascati Manual 2015 guidelines. Local government organisations are also excluded from the survey, as they are considered to have minimal R&D expenditure.

Government entities mainly engaged in market production or financial activities are not included in the General Government sector.

The NPIs Serving Households sector consists of resident non-market operators providing goods and services to households free or at prices that are not economically significant. It includes NPIs that are mainly financed from household member subscriptions and produce benefits primarily for the household members, and NPIs created for philanthropic purposes which are financed mainly from donations or government grants.

NPIs engaged in market production are not included in the NPIs Serving Households sector.

R&D, as collected by the ABS, is defined in accordance with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) standard as "creative and systematic work undertaken in order to increase the stock of knowledge - including knowledge of humankind, culture and society - and to devise new applications of available knowledge".

For a more comprehensive interpretation of the definition of R&D activity, see the Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC), 2020 or refer to the OECD publication Frascati Manual 2015: Guidelines for Collecting and Reporting Data on Research and Experimental Development.

Respondents report and self-classify R&D expenditure based on their interpretation of OECD and ABS definitions and classifications. The ABS makes every effort to ensure correct and consistent interpretation and reporting of these data by applying consistent processing methodologies. See also Non-Sampling Error and Revisions in the Data release section for more information.

Type of Activity, Fields of Research and Socio-Economic Objectives statistics presented in this release have been collected and compiled based on the Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC), 2020.

This release is the first time Fields of Research and Socio-Economic Objectives information was compiled using the Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC), 2020. Previous releases of this issue used the Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC), 2008.

The Economics Unit Model is used by the ABS to describe the structure of Australian businesses and other organisations. The model consists of four types of units:

• Enterprise Group (EG)
• Type of Activity Unit (TAU)
• Legal Entity (LE)
• Location Unit

Organisations contributing to the estimates in this publication are sourced from the ABS Business Register (ABSBR) and are selected at either the Australian Business Number (ABN) unit or the Type of Activity Unit (TAU) level, as described below.

In the Survey of R&D, Government and Private Non-Profit Organisations, the statistical unit used to represent most organisations, and for which statistics are reported, is the ABN unit. The ABN unit is the organisation unit which has registered for an ABN and appears on the Australian Tax Office (ATO) administered Australian Business Register (ABR). This unit is suitable for ABS statistical needs when the organisation is simple in structure. In these instances, one ABN equates to one statistical unit. These units are collectively referred to as the non-profiled population.

For more significant and diverse organisations where the ABN unit is not suitable for ABS statistical needs, the statistical unit used is the Type of Activity Unit (TAU). A TAU comprises one or more entities, sub-entities, or branches of an organisation within an Enterprise Group that can report production and employment activities. When a minimum set of data items are available, a TAU is created which covers all the operations within an industry subdivision. The TAU is classified to the relevant subdivision of the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC). These units are collectively referred to as the profiled population.

Further information on the ABSBR and ABS economic units model can be found in Australian Bureau of Statistics Business Register.

Location of expenditure relates to the region(s) in which the organisation reported having performed R&D, during the reference period. This may not be the head office location of the organisation. Data by location is collected for total R&D expenditure only and is not available for any other data items (i.e., location by source of funds, type of activity, Fields of Research, Socio-Economic Objectives, or type of resource).

The most recent GDP and GSP values available were used to calculate the R&D expenditure/GDP and R&D expenditure/GSP ratios presented in this issue. These values are referenced in the table below and have been revised from those used to calculate ratios in previous issues. 

GDP is estimated by the ABS according to the international standards contained in the System of National Accounts, 2008 (2008 SNA) and is not directly comparable to GDP for countries where these standards have not been applied.

The chain volume measures appearing in this release are annually reweighted chain Laspeyres indexes referenced to the current price values in a chosen reference year (currently 2022-23). They can be thought of as current price values re-expressed in (i.e., based on) the prices of the previous year and linked together to form continuous time series. They are formed in a multi-stage process of which the major steps are described in Chapter 6 of the Australian System of National Accounts: Concepts, Sources and Methods.

With the implementation of 2008 SNA, deflators used to calculate the chain volume measure of expenditure on R&D were revised to better capture changes in the unit value of labour used in the production of R&D services, and to increase and refine the number of products included in the deflators. The revised deflators have been used for the Survey of R&D, Government and Private Non-Profit Organisations statistics from the 2008-09 survey cycle.

Statistics presented in this release have been compiled from data collected by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) from Australian government and private non-profit organisations in the Survey of Research and Experimental Development (R&D), Government and Private Non-Profit Organisations. The survey also provides R&D data for the Business Longitudinal Analysis Data Environment (BLADE). The data were collected under the authority of the Census and Statistics Act 1905.

For information about the institutional environment of the ABS, including its legislative obligations, financing and governance arrangements, and mechanisms for scrutiny of ABS operations, please see ABS Institutional Environment.

This release presents statistics on R&D undertaken by Australian government and private non-profit organisations in respect of the 2022-23 financial year.

R&D statistics produced by the ABS enable the nature and distribution of R&D activity in Australia to be monitored and analysed for policy formulation, allocation of funds and determination of research priorities. 

Since the release of the 2008-09 Australian System of National Accounts, R&D has been treated as capital formation. This resulted from the implementation of the new international standards System of National Accounts, 2008 (2008 SNA) and represents a change in treatment of R&D (as intermediate consumption) from SNA 1993.

The ABS aims to produce high quality data from its research and experimental development collections, while minimising the reporting burden on government and private non-profit organisations. To achieve this, extensive effort is put into survey and questionnaire design, collection procedures and processing.

The Survey of R&D, Government and Private Non-Profit Organisations is a census of in-scope organisations (refer to the Scope in the Data collection section for more information). The survey achieved a response rate of 99%.

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

Non-sampling errors may arise as a result of errors in the reporting, recording or processing of data. These errors can be introduced through inadequacies in the questionnaire, treatment of non-response, inaccurate reporting by respondents, errors in the application of survey procedures, incorrect recording of answers and errors in data capture and processing.

The extent to which non-sampling error affects the results is difficult to measure. Every effort is made to minimise non-sampling error by careful design and testing of the collection instrument, the use of efficient operating procedures and systems, and the use of appropriate methodologies.

When interpreting the statistics in this release, the reliability and comparability of the estimates may be affected by the following specific non-sampling errors:

• Many organisations provided estimates due to a lack of separately recorded data on R&D activity.
• Data were self-classified by organisations to Type of Activity, Fields of Research and Socio-Economic Objectives at the time of reporting. Some organisations may have experienced difficulty in classifying their R&D projects. The ABS makes every effort to ensure correct and consistent interpretation and reporting of these data by applying consistent processing methodologies. 
• The estimation method for R&D related overhead costs varied across organisations and reference periods.

In the event of new information being identified and revisions made, revised figures will be indicated by a footnote. Revisions must be taken into consideration when interpreting results, particularly when comparing estimates over time.

The ABS seeks to maximise consistency and comparability over time by minimising changes to the survey. However, sound survey practice requires ongoing development to maintain the integrity of the data, its relevance to the changing needs of users and the efficiency of the collection. 

In addition to non-sampling errors, factors which may affect the comparability of current estimates with those of previous cycles are described below:

• From the 2020-21 cycle, Type of Activity, Fields of Research and Socio-Economic Objectives data have been collected and compiled based on the Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC), 2020. Prior to this, these data were based on the Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC), 2008 and the Australian Standard Research Classification (ASRC). The implementation of updated classifications in the 2000-01, 2008-09 and 2020-21 reference periods represent breaks in the relevant time series.

R&D, as collected by the ABS, is defined in accordance with the OECD standard as "creative and systematic work undertaken in order to increase the stock of knowledge - including knowledge of humankind, culture and society - and to devise new applications of available knowledge". 

The ABS Survey of R&D, Government and Private Non-Profit Organisations also uses classifications specific to R&D: results presented in this release are based on the Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC), 2020.

Data providers report and self-classify R&D survey information based on their interpretation of OECD and ABS definitions and classifications. The ABS makes every effort to ensure correct and consistent interpretation and reporting of these data. 

Further important contextual information, to be considered when interpreting the results presented in this release, is provided in the Data collection and Glossary sections of the Methodology page. 

Additionally, for a more comprehensive interpretation of the definitions and classifications relating to R&D activity, refer to: 

• the OECD publication The Measurement of Scientific and Technological Activities: Proposed Standard Practice for Surveys of Research and Experimental Development - Frascati Manual 2015; and
• the Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC), 2020.

Relevant OECD publications include: Main Science and Technology Indicators

The ABS acknowledges the ongoing contribution made by the organisations selected for the Survey of R&D, Government and Private Non-Profit Organisations.

ABS publications draw extensively on information provided freely by individuals, businesses, governments, and other organisations. Their continued cooperation is very much appreciated: without it, the wide range of statistics published by the ABS would not be available. Information received by the ABS is treated in strict confidence as required by the Census and Statistics Act 1905.

As well as the statistics included in this and related publications, the ABS may have other relevant data available on request. Enquiries should be made to the ABS Consultancy Service on 1300 135 070 or email information.consultancy@abs.gov.au.