By Muhammad Ali Gurtas

ANKARA

Turkey's gross domestic expenditure on research and development (GERD) in 2015 reached 20.6 billion Turkish liras (around $7.6 billion) -- a 17.1 rise compared to 2014 -- new Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) data revealed on Friday.

TurkStat's R&D Activities Survey revealed that the GERD share of the country's gross domestic production increased to 1.06 percent last year. This figure was 1.01 in 2014 and rose 0.47 percentage point in the last 10 years.

According to Friday's report, half of this total $7.6 billion R&D expenditure was made by the business enterprises sector. Higher education and the public sector took a share of R&D spending of 39.7 and 10.3 percent respectively.

TurkStat's survey revealed that the business enterprises sector was also a leader in financing R&D expenditures by 50.1 percent. The government sector was the second-biggest financier with a 27.6 percent share while the higher education sector accounted for 18.1 percent of total R&D financing in 2015.

Other national sources and foreign funds were also used for financing R&D activities, by 3.2 and 1.1 percent respectively, the report read.

TurkStat stated the total number of full-time equivalent R&D personnel was 122,288 in 2015, an increase of 5.9 percent compared to the previous year. The number of female R&D personnel was 37,510, constituting 30.7 percent of total R&D personnel.