Government boosts R&D spending
The government has increased its support for research and development (R&D) over the past two years, the Federal Statistics Office said on Monday.
Spending increased by SFr175 million ($160 million) between 2006 and 2008, reaching a record SFr1.527 billion annually.
“This result, a 13 per cent increase compared with 2006, is part of a trend observed since the beginning of the decade,” the office said.
The Swiss National Science Foundation was the recipient of more than SFr600 million of the R&D money while contributions to international institutions such as the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Organization for Nuclear Research (Cern) made up a third.
Not taken into account in the SFr1.5 billion are government contributions to R&D of Swiss universities.
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