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| Human resources devoted to R&D in Australia by Government organisations in 2000-01 was estimated to be 18,407 person years. This was 2% lower than in 1998-99. Human resources devoted to R&D in Australia by Private non-profit organisations in 2000-01 was estimated to be 2,721 person years, up 10% from 1998-99. |
In 2000-01, 95,254 person years were devoted to R&D, up 4% from 1998-99. The majority of these resources were expended by Higher education organisations (49%), Businesses (29%) and Government organisations (19%). In the period 1994-95 to 2000-01, human resources devoted to R&D increased by 10% or 8,371 person years. Over this period, human resources increased steadily in the Higher education and Private non-profit sectors and fell steadily in the Government sector. In the Business sector, human resources increased between 1994-95 and 1996-97, before falling in 1998-99 and then increasing again in 2000-01. TYPE OF EMPLOYEE Total person years of effort for 2000-01 was 95,254, an increase of 3,470 person years on 1998-99. The effort by researchers increased by 4% from 63,043 to 65,805 person years. R&D effort by Technicians and Other supporting staff increased by 2% from 28,741 to 29,450 person years. Researchers were the predominant type of employee in total person years for all sectors, accounting for approximately 85% of Higher education person years, 57% of Business person years, 49% of Government person years, and 55% of Private non-profit person years of effort. HUMAN RESOURCES BY SEO Of the total person years expended on R&D, Economic development accounted for 50%, Society for 28%, Non-oriented research for 13%, Environment for 7% and Defence for 3%. This pattern is noticeably different to that for expenditure reflecting the fact that average R&D expenditure per person year of effort differs across the sectors. In particular, it is considerably lower for the Higher education sector because a major part of the R&D is carried out by postgraduates and the research is generally directed towards objectives requiring less capital.
The bulk of the Business sector's human resource effort was in Engineering and technology (50%) and Information, computing and communication sciences (30%).
The main research fields that the Commonwealth government sector's human resource effort was directed towards included Engineering and technology (27%) and Agricultural, veterinary and environmental sciences (17%).
State/territory government human resource effort was predominantly expended in Agricultural, veterinary and environmental sciences (51%) and Medical and health sciences (24%).
The significant research fields in which Higher education human resource efforts were expended were Medical and health sciences (19%), Engineering and technology (11%) and Biological sciences (10%).
The majority of the Private non-profit sector's human resource effort was directed towards Medical and health sciences (61%) and Biological sciences (32%).
Human resources devoted to R&D in 1997-98 were 24,420 person years, 8% lower than in 1996-97. The stock of Human Resources in Science and Technology (HRST) increased from 15% of the population aged 15 years and over in 1991 to 18% in 1996 (2.0 million to 2.5 million). The proportion with S&T qualifications (HRSTQ) increased from 11% in 1991 to 14% in 1996. Persons in HRSTO in 1996 were mainly employed in Education, Health and Community services and Property and Business services, accounting for 23%, 20% and 17% of HRSTO respectively.