Science refers to a consistent system of verifiable observations and findings on a given set of phenomena as well as of methods used to obtain, process, explain in theory, and use these observations and findings.

Technologies take two fundamental forms: (i) tangible: knowledge embodied in physical objects (machines, equipment, instruments, etc.) or (ii) intangible: knowledge accumulated in people (human capital), information embodied in electronic media and documents (software, plans, designs, observation results, mathematical calculations, maps, etc.) and knowledge embodied in an institutional form – i.e. arrangement of activities and relations (organizational structure, management system, standards, regulations, etc.). Hence, while science is concerned about how and why certain things occur, technology is focussed on the means of their implementation.


Notes on tables

Tables 13-1 and 13-2. Human resources in science and technology

Human resources in science and technology (HRST) are defined in the Canberra manual (Manual on the measurement of human resources devoted to S&T, OECD, Paris, 1995) as people who fulfil at least one or other of the following conditions:

• successfully completed education at the third (tertiary) level ;
• not formally qualified as above, but employed in a S&T occupation where the above qualification is normally required.

Human resources in science and technology are monitored within the framework of the HRST system as a stock as of a certain date (current labour force with corresponding occupation and qualification – see Table 13-1) and flows (potential labour force with corresponding occupation and qualification available in the future – see Table 13-2).


Table 13-1. Human resources in science and technology (HRST stock): by field of study and occupation

Data on the HRST national stock are measured in the following three main categories:

– persons aged 15+ who completed the tertiary level of education successfully (ISCED 5B, 5A and 6) in the following main groups of fields of study: basic programmes; humanities and art; social sciences, business and law (social and behavioural science, journalism and information, business, administration and law); science (life sciences, physical sciences, mathematics and statistics, informatics); engineering, manufacturing and construction; health and welfare; agriculture (agriculture, forestry and fishery; veterinary); other sciences (general education, services, and not known or unspecified). The science and engineering, manufacturing and construction fields of study are considered as the narrowest basis as far as HRST measurement is concerned. Social sciences, business, trade and law, health and welfare, and agriculture are also classified as basic fields of study;

– persons employed in the national economy whose principal activity comes within scientific occupations (CZ-ISCO-R major group 2: Professionals) or technical occupations (CZ-ISCO-R major group 3: Technicians and associate professionals), which are a source of their main incomes from employment;

CZ-ISCO-R sub-major groups of occupations 21 (Physical, mathematical and engineering science professionals) and 22 (Life science and health professionals) make up the basic category within the framework of S’T occupations. Persons employed in these professions are referred to as scientists and engineers;

– persons who satisfy both the condition of successful completion of tertiary education and the condition of S&T occupation make up the HRST core (they are most valuable for the HRST system—they take an active part in scientific and technological development).

National stock of HRST, total comprises all persons who meet at least one of the conditions for being classified to the HRST category. It is calculated as follows: HRST core + persons with completed tertiary education not employed in S&T occupation + persons without completed tertiary education, but employed in S&T.

The presented figures come from the labour force sample survey conducted by the CZSO (the tables give averages for a given year).


Table 13-2. Students in and graduates from tertiary education in science and engineering, manufacturing and construction

The table gives the total number of students in and graduates from the tertiary level of education (ISCED 5B, 5A and 6) in the study fields of science (life sciences, physical sciences, mathematics and statistics, computing) and engineering, manufacturing and construction (engineering and engineering trades, manufacturing and processing, architecture and building). These students and graduates in total or part are flows (potential in the students and real in the graduates), which enter the HRST system. The data have been obtained from data sources of the Institute of Information on Education.


Table 13-3 to 13-9. Research and development

The concept ‘research and development’ is stipulated in the CR by Act No. 130/2002 Coll., on the Support to Research and Development from Public Funds and on Amendments to Certain Acts. For the purpose of the Act, ‘research and development’ is defined as systematic creative work carried out to obtain new knowledge or to use it.

Research comprises creative work undertaken on a systematic basis in order to increase the stock of knowledge, including knowledge of man, culture and society, using methods which allow confirming supplementing or refuting the knowledge obtained. It includes:

– basic research is experimental or theoretical work undertaken primarily to acquire new knowledge of the underlying foundation of phenomena and observable facts to explain causes thereof and possible impacts when the observed facts are used, and

– applied research is also experimental or theoretical work undertaken to acquire new knowledge directed to future practical uses. The part of the applied research whose results are used through development in new products, technologies and services designed for business under special regulations (e.g. Commercial Code; Act No. 77/1997 Coll., on the State Enterprise, as last amended) is referred to as industrial research.

Development is systematic creative work drawing on existing knowledge gained from research and/or practical experience, which is directed to producing new materials, products or devices, installing new processes, systems and services, or improving substantially those already produced or installed, including acquisition and verification of prototypes, pilot plants or demonstrational plants.

The research and development (R&D) data contained in this part of the chapter were obtained from results of a regular annual statistical survey on research and development (measurement of human and financial resources designed for research and development activities). The survey covers all businesses having R&D as their principal or secondary activity, irrespective of the number of employees. It is fully governed by EU and OECD methodological principles laid down in the Frascati manual (OECD, Paris 2002) and Commission Regulation (EC) No. 753/2004 of 22 April 2004 implementing Decision No. 1608/2003/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards statistics on science and technology.

Since the year 2001, mathematical statistical methods have been used to make estimates for the reporting units that failed to supply completed questionnaires by the deadline (estimates for non-response).

The R&D indicators are measured in the following four key sectors, where R&D activities are carried out, derived from institutional sectors and sub-sectors used in national accounts:

– business sector, which comprises all firms, organizations and institutions whose principal activity is to produce goods or services for sale to general public at an economically significant price,

– general government sector, which comprises state administration authorities at all levels (central, regional, local), except for publicly managed higher professional and university education,

– higher education sector, which comprises all universities, colleges of technology, and other institutes of post-secondary education. It also includes all research institutes, experimental stations and clinics operating under the direct control or administration of higher professional and university education establishments or are associated with them. The sector is not any separate institutional sector of national accounting – the OECD identified it separately for its important role in research and development,

– non-profit institutions serving households sector (NPISH sector), which comprises private institutions, including private persons and households, whose primary goal or function is not to make profits, but provide non-market services to households. They include, e.g., associations of research organizations, societies, trade and other unions, movements, federations, foundations, religious societies, etc.

The R&D indicators are measured by fields of science, in which the reporting unit largely pursues its research and development activities. The fields of science, as defined by Frascati manual, are:

– natural sciences: mathematics and computer sciences, physical sciences, chemical sciences, Earth and related environmental sciences, and biological sciences,

– engineering and technology: civil engineering, electrical engineering, electronics, and other engineering sciences and technologies (chemical, aeronautical and space, mechanical, food, metallurgical, clothing, etc.),

– medical sciences: basic medicine, clinical medicine, health sciences and allied fields,

– agricultural sciences: agriculture, forestry, fisheries and allied sciences; veterinary medicine,

– social sciences: psychology, economics, educational sciences (education and training and other allied subjects), and other social sciences (anthropology, ethnology, demography, geography, town and country planning, management, law, linguistics, political sciences, sociology, etc.,

– humanities: history, languages and literature, other humanities (philosophy, arts, art history, religion, etc.).

Since 2001, the R&D data are also measured by region, according to R&D workplaces of reporting units.


Table 13-3. Main research and development aggregates

R&D employees are research workers directly engaged in R&D, as well as auxiliary workers, technicians, administrators and other persons working at R&D workplaces of the reporting units. They also include employees in charge of providing direct services for R&D activities. Their formal job attachment is contract of employment, contract for work or contract of service.

Way of measuring and recording R&D employees:

– the registered number of employees as of 31 December in terms of actual persons (headcount) refers to the number of persons active, fully or in part, in R&D activities (human resources in research and development). Before 2001 the number also included contracts for work and of service in R&D in force as of the end of a reference year,

– the number of concluded contracts of service or for work in R&D during a reference year. This indicator has been measured separately since 2001,

– the average registered number of R&D employees, in terms of full-time equivalent (FTE). One FTE equals one-year (full-time) work of an employee who is 100% engaged in R&D activities. For employees also engaged in other activities than R&D, only the R&D-related working time is counted in, so that overestimation of the number of employees engaged in R&D will be avoided. The FTE indicator also takes account of the number of persons working for the reporting unit under contracts for work or of service, adjusted as the FTE methodology dictates.

Internal expenditure on R&D (R&D expenditure) includes all internal R&D expenditure spent within a reporting unit or an economic sector irrespective of the source of financing. Expenditure made outside the reporting unit, but supporting internal R&D (e.g. purchases of deliveries for R&D), is included. The internal R&D expenditure consists of:

– non-investment R&D expenditure, further split into:

– total wages of registered R&D employees, whose volume corresponds to the share of the working time spent on R&D activities and includes health and social insurance contributions paid by employers for their employees,

– remuneration for work or service as laid down in contracts for work and of service in the area of R&D, implemented outside contracts of employment,

– other non-investment expenditure (on material, supplies and equipment to support R&D activities of the reporting unit and on services hired or purchased for R&D). Depreciation of buildings, machinery and mechanical equipment is not included in the statistical measurement of internal R&D expenditure;

– acquisition of intangible and tangible fixed assets for R&D, further split into:

– intangible fixed assets – expenditure on intangible R&D results, software, know-how, licences, industrial rights, and on other results of intellectual creative activity, be they subject of valuable rights, both acquired or provided, or not,

– land, buildings and structures – expenditure on land acquired for R&D needs (e.g. experimental laboratories) and buildings either bought or built up, expenditure on technical improvement of buildings, etc.,

– other fixed assets – expenditure on technical and other equipment necessary for R&D activities (machines, devices, computers, means of transport, etc.).

Table 13-5. Employees engaged in research and development: by occupation, educational attainment and field of science

By occupation, R&D employees are split into:

– research workers – professionals engaged in outlining and creating or producing new knowledge, products, processes, methods and systems and/or in managing such projects. They are mostly scientific and professional intellectual workers and heads of research and development departments,

– technicians (technicians and associate staff) – persons who participate in R&D by performing scientific and technical tasks by applying concepts and operational methods, normally under supervision of researchers,

– others (other supporting staff) – craftsmen and secretarial and clerical staff who participate in R&D activities or are directly associated with them; managers and administrators insofar as their activities are direct serving to R&D are included.

By highest educational attainment, R&D employees are split into:

– R&D employees with doctoral education – they reached level V (Doctoral education attained by completion a doctoral study programme, extension study or scientific education resulting in the Czech degree “PhD”, “Dr.”, “DrSc” or “CSc.”) according to the national classification „Klasifikace kmenových oborů vzdělání“, KKOV (Classification of Basic Fields of Education),

– R&D employees with university education – they reached level T (University education attained by completion of masters, engineering and medical study programmes of universities) or level R (University education attained by completion of bachelors study programmes of universities) according to the KKOV,

– R&D employees with higher professional education – they reached level N (Higher professional education attained by completion of the educational programmes of higher professional schools, performing arts schools and dancing schools; specialization and innovation post-secondary study) according to the KKOV,

– R&D employees with upper secondary education and secondary technical education (hereinafter referred to as the secondary education) – they reached levels H, J, K, L, and M according to the KKOV,

– R&D employees with other lower education – they reached levels A, B, C, D, and E according to the KKOV.


Table 13-6. Research and development expenditure: by source of funding and sector of performance

There are five basic sectors as sources to fund the performance of research and development activities (R&D-funding sectors) in four sectors of R&D performance. Both the former and the latter include the business sector (own funds or funds of other businesses), the government sector (public funds allocated from the state budget chapter for R&D, regional budgets, etc.), the higher education sector (own revenues), and the private non-profit sector. The remaining fifth sector is the rest-of-the-world sector.

The rest-of-the-world sector comprises all institutions and individuals outside to political borders of the country. Belonging to this sector are also all international organizations (European Commission, NATO, etc.), including their facilities and plants within the country.

Table 13-10. External trade in highly advanced technology (high-tech) products

In the framework of OECD highly-advanced technology (high-tech) products were defined according to the Standard International Trade Classification (SITC) rev. 3 and divided into the following nine basic groups:

• Aviation
• Computers and office machines
• Electronics and telecommunications
• Pharmaceuticals
• Scientific instruments and apparatus
• Electric machinery
• Chemicals
• Non-electric machinery
• Arms

The data on exports and imports of high-tech products (goods) broken down by SITC have been obtained from data sources of Directorate General of Customs and, since May 2004, from the CZSO’s data sources (Intrastat).


Tables 13-11 and 13-12. Innovations

The data on innovations presented in this chapter have been obtained from a statistical sample survey. The survey was conducted for the period of 2002-2003 on a sample of reporting units coming under the business sector. Its objective was to map out the innovation potential of businesses operating in the Czech Republic. The methodology of data collection and processing is based on the Oslo Manual by OECD and Council Decision 94/78/EC, Euratom of 24 January 1994 establishing a multi-annual programme for the development of Community statistics on research, development and innovation, and it is in harmony with the methodology and recommendations of Eurostat. The population of the survey comprised reporting units with 10+ employees belonging to chosen areas of production and services (both financial and non-financial).

The statistical survey was focussed on technical innovations first of all (i.e. on the creation of new or improvement of the existing products and rendered services, production technologies and processes). An innovation in this concept is thus a process of implementing continuous changes (in the technical design of product, in production technology, materials used, etc.) and includes:

– product innovation: refers to goods or services either new or with much better basic properties, a higher technical quality, introduced software or other intangible features, a wider use, and provide better higher satisfaction of the customer. A product innovation shall be new for an enterprise, but does not have to be necessarily new for the market. Mere aesthetic changes, as well as mere sale of innovations produced and developed solely by other institutions, are not counted in;

– process innovation: refers to new and significantly improved production technologies and new and substantially improved methods of providing services and offering goods. Resulting effects shall be significant with regard to the size and quality of the output or production and distribution costs. A process innovation shall be new for an enterprise, but does not have to be necessarily new for the market. The enterprise observed does not have to be the first to have introduced such a process.

Businesses with innovation activity (innovating businesses) are businesses which were introducing technically new or improved products or processes reference period.


Table 13-12. Innovation costs and the share of innovated and new products in sales: 2003

Total innovation costs in 2003, which were caused by innovation activities in businesses in reference period, comprise intra-enterprise research and development, acquisition of external research and development results, acquisition of machinery and equipment (advanced machines, computer hardware especially bought to introduce new or significantly improved products and/or processes), acquisition of other external knowledge (purchases o patent rights and non-patent inventions, licences, know-how, trademarks, software and other forms of knowledge from other entities, made to be used in company innovations), training (internal and external vocational training for employees, directly intended for research and development), and design and other forms of preparation for production/delivery (procedure and technical preparation leading to own implementation of products and process innovation not included elsewhere).


Tables 13-13 and 13-14. Invention applications and patents granted in the CR

The invention is a solution to a technical problem, which is new compared to the state of the technology in the world, contains an inventive step, does not clearly result for an expert from the know state of technology, and finds an industrial use. Patent granting proceedings are begun by lodging an invention application with the Industrial Property Office of the Czech Republic (IPO). By lodging the application concerning an invention (patent application), the applicant acquires the right of priority. The application is lodged in all countries in which the potential invention holder requires protection.

The patent is defined by Act No. 527/1990 Coll. as last amended. It is a public deed issued by a national or international patent office (by the Industrial Property Office (IPO) in the Czech Republic) and provides legal protection of the invention for 20 years in the territory for which the patent was issued.

The data have been obtained from data sources of the Industrial Property Office. They are broken down by date of the publishing of patent application or granted patent in the IPO’s Journal according to the methodology laid down in the Patent Manual (OECD, Paris, 1994).

The data on patents broken down by country of inventor are classified by fractional method (e.g., if four inventors of different nationalities complete together one application concerning a patent, one fourth of the patent is assigned to each of the countries). The data are also split by section of the International Patent Classification (IPC). Where more IPC codes are assigned to one patent, the indication of the patent is assigned to the first code. The applications and patents are then classified, on the basis of the IPC, in the framework of high-tech products or groups of high-tech products.

Note: Starting from 2002, the number of foreign patent applications, and consequently that of patent applications lodged in total in the CR, drops in connection with the adoption of the European Patent Agreement


Table 13-15. Concluded licence agreements and licence fees: 2003

A licence is one of the possibilities to use industrial rights and intellectual property on a commercial basis. Between 1995 and 2002, data on licence agreements were collected in the framework of an annual questionnaire on research and development. Starting from 2003 the data have been collected by means of a separate annual statistical survey designed as a 100% survey. The survey was taken in all reporting units in which a sale or a purchase of a licence on some of industrial property protections was revealed.

A licence agreement refers to granting the right to acquisition (purchase) or disposal (sale) in an agreed scope and territory. Licence agreements are concluded in writing for patented inventions or utility models, industrial designs, topography of semi-conductor products, new varieties of plants and animal breeds or trademarks, etc. The licensor entitles the licensee to exercise industrial property rights within the scope and on the territory agreed, and the licensee undertakes to provide certain payment or other property value. A licence agreement becomes operative towards third persons on its recording in the register of the Industrial Property Office of the CR.


Table 13-16. Receipts from and payments for technological services: technology balance of payments

Data on receipts or payments obtained in the framework of the technology balance of payments (TBP) indicate the technological level of the economy, more specifically the volume of external trade in industrial property and knowledge connected with advanced technology. The idea and methodology of these statistics are based on the Manual for the Measurement and Interpretation of Technology Balance of Payments Data – TBP Manual, OECD, 1990.

The data listed in this table come from data sources of the Czech National Bank (CNB), namely from the current account of the balance of payments. The individual TBP items are defined according to individual payment items and corresponding international codes (BPM5).

The TBM data, revenues and payments are further broken down by country. The CNB does not assign country codes to all TBP transfers and these data are pooled under item ‘Not distinguished’.


Table 13-17. Main indicators on a group of manufacturing industries high in technological intensity (the high-tech sector)

The table gives a group of manufacturing industries with high technological intensity as far as research and development results are concerned. On the one hand, they produce high-tech products (information technologies, biotechnologies, nano-technologies, etc.) and, on the other hand, they themselves are users of these products. In 1997, OECD developed a classification of industries by their technological intensity (four different categories of technological intensity: high technology, medium-high technology, medium-low technology and low technology) based on the Standard International Trade Classification, SITC Rev. 3 (CZ-NACE in the CR). This split resulted from evaluation of the ranking of the following three technological intensity indicators reflecting views of the technology producer and the technology user:

• R&D expenditures divided by value added,
• R&D expenditures divided by output, and
• R&D plus technology incorporated into semi-finished products and capital goods, divided by product.

The group of high technology manufacturing industries is composed of ‘manufacture of pharmaceuticals, medicinal chemicals and botanical products’ (CZ-NACE 24.4), ‘manufacture of office machinery and computers’ (CZ-NACE 30), ‘manufacture of radio, television and communication equipment and apparatus’ (CZ-NACE 32), ‘manufacture of medical, precision and optical instruments, watches and clocks’ (CZ-NACE 33), and ‘manufacture of aircraft and spacecraft‘ (CZ-NACE 35.3).

The data (the average registered number of employees, book value added and turnover) on the group of manufacturing industries high in technological intensity were obtained from a regular annual structural survey on businesses in chosen production industries.



The tabulated data are comparable with the data published in the statistical yearbooks of previous years.