Total innovation expenditure by enterprises in Ireland in 2022 was €11.2 billion compared with €7.4 billion in 2020.
Enterprises involved in innovation employed almost 360,700 people in Ireland in 2022.
Irish-owned enterprises accounted for 22% of innovation expenditure in Ireland in 2022, while foreign-owned enterprises accounted for 78%.
More than 18% of enterprises introduced an innovation in 2022 that significantly reduced their energy use or CO2 footprint.
A quarter of enterprises attached high importance to increasing costs or input prices resulting from climate change, rising to almost a third when looking at large enterprises (32%).
The total spend on innovation in Ireland was €11.2bn in 2022, an increase of 50.4% on the 2020 figure of €7.4bn. The main driver for this increase was a 61.9% rise in expenditure for in-house R&D from €6.1bn in 2020 to €9.8bn in 2022.
| Type of Innovation expenditure by enterprises, 2020 and 2022 | ||||||
| 2020 | 2022 | 2020-2022 | ||||
| €m | % Breakdown | €m | % Breakdown | Percentage change | ||
| In-house R&D | 6,081.0 | 81.8% | 9,844.5 | 88.0% | 61.9% | |
| Purchase of external R&D | 810.9 | 10.9% | 687.2 | 6.1% | -15.3% | |
| Acquisition of machinery, equipment and software | 336.4 | 4.5% | 82.9 | 0.7% | -75.4% | |
| All other innovation activities | 205.9 | 2.8% | 570.4 | 5.1% | 177.0% | |
| Total innovation expenditure1 | 7,434.3 | 100.0% | 11,184.9 | 100.0% | 50.4% | |
| 1Expenditure for enterprises with 10 or more employed in Industry and Selected Services sectors. | ||||||
In-house R&D accounted for 88.0% of all innovative expenditure in 2022, an increase from 81.8% in 2020. Share of innovation expenditure in 2022 for purchase of external R&D (6.1%) and acquisition of machinery, equipment, and software (0.7%) both decreased when compared with 2020 expenditure.
| For long labels below use to display on multiple lines | % |
|---|---|
| In-house R&D | 81.8 |
| External R&D | 10.9 |
| Machinery, equipment, software | 4.5 |
| All other innovation | 2.8 |
| For long labels below use to display on multiple lines | % |
|---|---|
| In-house R&D | 88 |
| External R&D | 6.1 |
| Machinery, equipment, software | 0.7 |
| All other innovation | 5.1 |
In 2022, Irish-owned enterprises accounted for 22.3% of innovation expenditure while foreign-owned enterprises accounted for 77.7%. At a sectoral level, Industry accounted for 64.7% while Services accounted for 35.3%.
| For long labels below use to display on multiple lines | % |
|---|---|
| Irish owned enterprises | 22.3 |
| Foreign owned enterprises | 77.7 |
In 2022, enterprises in Industry had 32.4% in-house R&D expenditure, compared with 21.6% of enterprises in Selected Services.
Amongst Irish-owned enterprises, 23.1% had in-house R&D expenditure, compared with 32.8% of foreign-owned enterprises.
Across all types of enterprises, process innovation was more common (40.5%) compared to product innovation (28.0%).
| Product innovation | Process innovation | Product and process innovation | |
| Industry | 30.5 | 42.8 | 22.9 |
| Selected Services | 26.4 | 39.1 | 20.4 |
| Irish owned | 25.8 | 38 | 19.3 |
| Foreign owned | 34 | 47.3 | 26.9 |
| All enterprises | 28 | 40.5 | 21.3 |
Large enterprises had higher rates of engagement in all types of intellectual property rights activity compared to small or medium enterprises. The most common type of intellectual property rights activity was registering a trademark (5.6%).
| Small (10-49 persons engaged) | Medium (50-249 persons engaged) | Large (250+ persons engaged) | All enterprises | |
| Applying for a patent | 2.4 | 5.4 | 12.6 | 4.5 |
| Registering an industrial design right | 0.1 | 0.8 | 3.1 | 0.7 |
| Registering a trademark | 4.1 | 6.3 | 11.2 | 5.6 |
| Using trade secrets | 2 | 4.5 | 12.1 | 3.9 |
| Claiming a copyright | 0.8 | 1.2 | 4.2 | 1.3 |
The most common type of environmental innovation reported in 2022 was reduced energy use or CO2 footprint of the enterprise (18.2%), while the least common was protection of biodiversity for end users (5.3%). Other types of innovation reported by more than one tenth of enterprises included recycled waste, water, or materials for own use or sale (14.4%), reduced energy or CO2 footprint for end users (13.7%), facilitated recycling of product after use (13.5%), reduced material or water use (11.9%), and replaced share of fossil energy with renewable sources (10.8%).
| Percentage | |
| Protection of biodiversity for end users | 5.3 |
| Extended product life through longer-lasting, more durable products | 8.4 |
| Facilitated recycling of product after use | 13.5 |
| Reduced air, water, soil or noise pollution for end users | 5.9 |
| Reduced energy use or CO₂ footprint for end users | 13.7 |
| Protection of biodiversity for enterprise | 7.3 |
| Recycled waste, water, or materials for own use or sale | 14.4 |
| Replaced a share of fossil energy with renewable energy sources | 10.8 |
| Replaced a share of materials with less polluting or hazardous substitute | 9 |
| Reduced soil, noise, water or air pollution of enterprise | 7.8 |
| Reduced energy use or CO₂ footprint of enterprise | 18.2 |
| Reduced material or water use per unit of output | 11.9 |
In 2022, almost one-quarter (24.7%) of enterprises said increasing costs or input prices resulting from climate change was of high importance to their enterprise, including almost one-third (32.6%) of enterprises in Industry and large enterprises (32.4%). Other factors relating to climate change included government policies or measures related to climate change (16.4% giving high importance), increasing customer demand for products that help mitigate or adapt to climate change (15.1%), and impacts of extreme weather conditions (11.2%).
| Small (10-49 persons engaged) | Medium (50-249 persons engaged) | Large (250+ persons engaged) | All enterprises | |
| Government policies or measures related to climate change | 13.2 | 17.6 | 29.2 | 16.4 |
| Increasing customer demand for products that help mitigate or adapt to climate change | 11.3 | 17.8 | 24.7 | 15.1 |
| Increasing costs or input prices resulting from climate change | 21.8 | 26.8 | 32.4 | 24.7 |
| Impacts of extreme weather conditions | 10.3 | 12.4 | 11.2 | 11.2 |
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Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (20 June 2024) released Innovation in Irish Enterprises 2022.
Commenting on the release, Devin Zibulsky, Statistician in the Enterprise Statistics Division, said: “Innovation in Irish Enterprises is based on a survey of the innovation and research and development (R&D) activities of enterprises employing 10 or more people from 2020 to 2022.
Our analysis shows that enterprises reported higher innovation spending in 2022 compared with 2020, but a lower overall rate of innovation, which may partially reflect a spike in innovation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Most innovation expenditure (88%) was for in-house (R&D), while large enterprises (employing more than 250 people) accounted for 74% of total expenditure.
Environmental Innovation
The 2022 survey included a new module on innovations with environmental benefits. Enterprises were asked about 12 different types of environmental innovation. The most common type of environmental innovation introduced by enterprises was reduced energy use or CO2 footprint of the enterprise (18%). This type of innovation was introduced by nearly four in ten large enterprises (39%). The second most common type of innovation reported was recycled waste, water, or materials for own use or sale (14%).
Climate Change
In 2022, almost one-quarter (25%) of enterprises said increasing costs or input prices resulting from climate change was of high importance to their enterprise, including almost one-third of enterprises in Industry (33%) and large enterprises (32%)."