In the first quarter of 2007, the National Statistics Office carried out a study to measure the research and development (R&D) activity of the General Government sector for the years 2005 and 2006. A total of 102 units responded to the survey, of which seven were actively engaged in R&D projects in 2006. Of these, one was a government department, five were extra-budgetary units, and one was a local council.

In 2006, 952 employees were engaged in R&D work within General Government, of whom 927 were engaged in R&D activities on a part-time basis. There was a predominance of men among PhD researchers and technicians, while women were predominant among support staff.

The highest employment activity in R&D was observed in the medical sciences, accounting for 305 employees in 2006. This was followed by the social sciences, with 266 employees.

Total General Government expenditure on R&D amounted to Lm4.4 million in 2006, up by 14.9 per cent over 2005. Of this expenditure, 55.4 per cent went into labour costs and 41.4 per cent to other recurrent expenditures, while 3.2 per cent was spent on capital expenditure.

In 2006, total R&D expenditure in the General

Government sector was highest in the field of social sciences, with a share of almost

32.4 per cent of total expenditure. All this expenditure was entailed by the EBUs.

Consistent with the trend observed in previous years, the EBU sub-sector benefited from the broadest inflow of funds for 2006.

In Malta, the Higher Education Sector (HES) is included within the EBU category.