The terms research and development in the Czech Republic are defined in the Act on R&D Support from Public Funds. R&D is defined as systematic creative work undertaken on a systematic basis in order to increase the stock of knowledge, including knowledge of human beings, culture and society, and carried out for the purpose of obtaining or using new knowledge using methods allowing confirmation, widening or refuting of knowledge obtained. It includes:

• basic research, which is experimental or theoretical work undertaken primarily to acquire new knowledge of the underlying foundation of observed phenomena, to explain their causes and possible impacts when using obtained findings without any particular application or use in view;
• applied research, which is experimental or theoretical work undertaken to acquire new knowledge or skills with a purpose to develop or improve goods, processes or services; findings from this type of research are directed primarily towards a specific aim or objective;
• development (experimental development), which is systematic work drawing on existing knowledge gained from research, technology, business or other related fields to produce or substantially improve new materials, products or equipment, or to introduce new or improved technologies, systems and services.

Reporting units in the R&D survey are all legal and natural persons conducting R&D in the Czech Republic as their principal (CZ-NACE 72 – places devoted fully to research) or secondary economic activity, irrespective of the number of personnel, sector or CZ-NACE activity.

The R&D personnel and R&D expenditure data are always totals from collected questionnaires. Since the year 2001, mathematical and statistical methods have been used to make estimates for non-response.

The R&D indicators are normally observed in the following four key R&D sectors defined in the Frascati manual and derived from institutional sectors and sub-sectors used in the national accounts:

• business enterprise sector, which comprises all companies, organizations and institutions whose principal activity is market production of goods or services for sale to the general public at an economically significant price;
• general government sector, which includes especially workplaces of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic and other places of research under the competence of ministries (on 1 January 2007 the statute of most of these entities changed to public research institutions), institutions of central and local government, except for publicly managed higher education institutions; it also contains public libraries, archives, museums and other cultural establishments conducting R&D as their secondary activity;
• higher education sector, which comprises both public and private universities and other institutions of post-secondary education. It also includes all research institutes, experimental facilities and clinics whose work is directly controlled or managed by higher education institutions or they are associated with them. Since 2005, in compliance with OECD methodology, the sector also includes teaching hospitals. This sector is not a separate institutional sector of national accounting but has been separately identified for its important role in R&D;
• non-profit institutions serving households sector (referred to as the private non-profit sector), which comprises private institutions, including private persons and households, whose primary aim is not profit formation but providing non-market services to households. They include, e.g., associations of research organizations, societies, unions, movements, federations or foundations.

The data are broken down by region according to the location of R&D workplaces of reporting units. This classification is available since 2001. Estimates per districts were made according places of domicile of businesses and addresses of R&D workplaces. The place of domicile of businesses does not have to be identical with workplace of research and development (performance of R&D).

By occupation, R&D personnel are split into:

• researchers: professionals engaged in the conception or generation of new knowledge, products, processes, methods and systems or managing of such projects. They are mostly scientific specialists or heads of R&D departments;
• technicians and equivalent staff (referred to as “technicians”): persons who participate in R&D activities by performing scientific and technical tasks involving the application of concepts and operational methods (usually under the supervision of researchers);
• other supporting staff (referred to as “other personnel”): skilled and unskilled craftsmen, secretarial and clerical staff participating in R&D activities or directly associated with such activities; included are also managers and office staff who provide direct support for R&D.

Full-time equivalent (FTE) brings information about real volume devoted to research and development activities. One FTE is equal to one year of work fully devoted to R&D. This variable is important especially to measure volume of R&D activities by persons who do not devote to R&D fully but are engaged also in other activities (for example, professors who teach as well as make research). The indicator also includes the number of FTE persons working for the reporting unit under contract for work or contract of service.

Total expenditure consists of all R&D current and capital expenditure made within the statistical unit or economic sector irrespective of the source of funds. Included are also expenditures made outside the statistical unit (external expenditure) under the condition that they fully support R&D of the statistical unit (e.g., purchase of supplies for R&D).

Patent statistics brings not just valuable information on new outputs of the research, development and innovation activity in selected fields of technology but also on spread of knowledge. The Industrial Property Office of the Czech Republic (IPO CR) is responsible for the administration of industrial rights in the Czech Republic. The patent data are processed by the Czech Statistical Office from data sources of the IPO CR and are classified according to methodology set out in the OECD Patent Manual (OECD, Paris, 2009). The International Patent Classification (IPC) makes it possible to classify utility models and granted patents to technological areas.

The Czech Statistical Office publishes additional information about the Czech applicants (entities registered in the Czech Republic) broken down by their institutional sector (business enterprise sector, government sector, higher education sector, and physical holders), region of the patent holder (CZ NUTS 3 and 4) and selected technology fields such as High-tech, ICT, Biotechnology and Renewable resources.

The Czech Labour Force Survey is used as a data source for S&E professionals in the Czech Republic (since 1993). Presented data are always averages for each year. The annual averages lower than 3 000 persons must be considered as a data with very low reliability.

Structural statistic on earnings of employees is used as data source for average monthly gross wage. This survey is organized by the Czech Statistical Office and the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs.

Note: In this publication are presented data about the sample of the survey (not grossed up results) covering c. 1,7 mil. engaged persons.

INFORMATION SOCIETY

Information and communication technologies (ICT) generally refer to technologies, systems, activities and processes that participate in display, processing, storage and transmission of information and data in electronic form.

Since 2003, the Czech Statistical Office (CZSO) has been monitoring the spread of selected information technologies in households and among individuals by way of an independent annual statistical survey titled: “Sample Survey on the Use of Information and Communication Technologies in Households and Among Individuals“.The sample comprises about 10 000 individuals aged 16+. In line with LFS methodology, the results were weighted to the whole population of the Czech republic.

Since 2006, a survey is being conducted according to Regulation (EC) No 808/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning statistics on the information society, thereby allowing for the production of data comparable with individual EU states, Iceland and Norway.

The reference period is the survey period (2^nd quarter of reference year since 2005) for data on households, and mostly last three months preceding the interview for data on individuals.

Broadband connection includes one of the following Internet access services that enable a high speed internet connection (256 or more kbit/s, in one or both directions): xDSL (ADSL etc.), Cable TV (cable modem/CATV), WiFi and other fixed wireless connections (FWA), connections via mobile networks (EDGE, CDMA, or UMTS) and other such as Fibre, LAN, Satellite technologies, etc.

The data come from the statistical survey on ICT use in the Czech republic administration sector, which is a supplement to the annual questionnaire for organisational units of the state, territorial self-governing units, partially budget-funded organisations and similar government institutions, which fully covers all state administration offices, regional offices and municipalities. The latest survey in regards to this issue was conducted in the first half of 2009 in respect of the reference period of 31 December 2008.

The data on public internet access points in libraries come from National Information and Consulting Centre for Culture.

The Czech Statistical Office in cooperation with the Institute of Health Information and Statistics of the Czech Republic (IHIS), that is a state-subsidized organization administered by the Ministry of Healthcare of the Czech Republic, developed a short module (set of basic questions) related to ICT usage in the health-care facilities. This module is a part of the questionnaires used for the census surveys carry out by the Ministry of Healthcare of the Czech Republic for health-care institutions.

Data on the equipping of schools in the Czech Republic with information technologies (computers and Internet connections) originates from the Institute for Information in Education (IIE), which collects data via the Internet on the available IT infrastructure at most of the primary, secondary and advanced vocational schools.

The Czech Labour Force Survey is used as a data source for ICT professionals in the Czech Republic. Presented data are always averages for each year. For whole chapter holds that the annual averages lower than 3 000 persons must be considered as a data with very low reliability.

Structural statistic on earnings of employees is used as data source for average monthly gross wage. This survey is organized by the Czech Statistical Office and the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. In this publication are presented data about the sample of the survey (not grossed up results) covering c. 1,7 mil. engaged persons.

9601-09	Research and Development Indicators 2008
9611-09	Government Budget Appropriations or Outlays for R&D (GBOARD) in the Czech Republic 2008
9701-09	Use of ICT by Households and Individuals in 2009
9702-09	Use of ICT in the Business Sector
9703-09	Use of ICT in the Public Administration Sector in 2008
9705-09	Information society in figures 2009
9707-09	Information economy in figures 2009