Almost 60% of Irish enterprises were involved in innovation activities during 2020, figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
The total spends on innovation in Ireland was €7.4bn in 2020, an increase of 36.3% on the 2018 figure of €5.5bn.
The main driver for this increase was a 100.6% rise in expenditure for in-house R&D from €3bn in 2018 to €6.1bn in 2020.
The CSO defined innovation as “a new or improved product, process, or combination of both that differs from previous products or processes and that has been made available to users or brought into use.”
Enterprises involved in innovation employed more than 372,000 people in Ireland in the year 2020.
Irish-owned enterprises accounted for 27% of innovation expenditure in Ireland, while foreign-owned enterprises accounted for 73%.
More than 22% of enterprises introduced an innovation in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, while nearly 14% abandoned or suspended an innovation due to the pandemic.
Devin Zibulsky, Statistician in the Business Statistics Division, said: “Innovation in Irish Enterprises is based on a survey of the innovation and research and development activities of enterprises employing 10 or more people from 2018 to 2020.
Overall, enterprises reported higher rates of innovation and innovation spending in 2020 compared to 2018.
Most innovation expenditure (82%) was for in-house research and development, while large enterprises that employed more than 250 people accounted for 73% of the total expenditure. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, 22% of Irish-owned companies and 26% of foreign-owned companies introduced new innovations,” he added.
The main cause for the increase in innovation expenditure was a 100.6% rise in expenditure for in-house research and development, which rose from €3bn in 2018 to €6.1bn in 2020.
However, the total expenditure on external research and development decreased 5% from €853m in 2018 to €811m in 2020.
Expenditure in all other innovation areas decreased by 65% from €1.6bn to €542m.