Features of Scientific Research Financing in the European Union

Abstract

The article is aimed at identifying the scope and features of financial provision for scientific research in the founding countries of the EU – Germany, France and Italy, as well as in new countries – the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia. Methodological basis of researches constituted the publications of scholars on this issue, analytical methods, the Eurostat data, and developed scientific approaches. According to the substantiated criteria, the analysis of research costs in terms of total expenses, costs by sector and per person is carried out. The identified features are grouped by common and distinctive characteristics regarding business structures, the public sector and higher education institutions. The dynamics of increasing or reducing these costs for a particular country during 2014–2019 are distinguished. The acyclicity of expenses detected during the specified period in all the analyzed countries by certain sectors is an evidence of a permanent search for the optimal ratio between the subjects of financing and reflects the specifics of the financial policy implemented by governments. Significant results of the study are the definition of a significant role of Germany in financing these costs, the share of which is almost a third of all EU spending, as well as the identification among the analyzed countries of a significant difference in costs between Germany, as the most economically developed EU country, and Slovakia, as the least developed, which makes 141 times. Separately, it is emphasized that the peculiarities of financing the costs are determined by the factors of historical, economic and mental content, which are disclosed with the appropriate substantiation in the article. The conclusions of the completed research are consistent with the views of other scholars whose works are taken into account in this article. A reasoning of the research results is provided and the feasibility of further searches for optimization of research costs is defined.

Keywords

• scientific research financing
• features and dynamics of costs
• european union