The Volume and Dynamics of Domestic Expenditures on Research and Development in the European Union

In the article, whose construction is of theoretical and empirical nature, the author attempted to achieve the following objectives: 1) identification and critical assessment of expenditures on research and development (GERD index), expressed in euro per inhabitant, incurred by statistical units concentrated in the sectors: business enterprises, government, higher education, private non-profit organizations and jointly in all sectors in countries members of the European Union. The level and dynamics of these expenditures are treated as an indirect measure of senior management’s involvement in creating R&D policy and efficient management in R&D phases; 2) an attempt to verify theses that R&D expenditures are variable and diversified in EU Member States, which indicates the lack of a rational R&D policy focused on the systematic generation of new knowledge materialized in innovations providing customers the expected value in a systemic way; 3) developing models of innovative R&D activities management. To develop the article, research methods are used, such as: critical-cognitive analysis of literature, statistical-comparative analysis of Eurostat’s empirical secondary material, projection method. The level of the GERD meter indicates a significant differentiation of R&D expenditure in individual sections of the analysis. The member states of the old EU had relatively higher outlays for this purpose compared to the new member states.