In an increasingly knowledge-based economy, as part of the 'Europe 2020' programme, the European Union has set the objective to encourage member states to allocate 3% of their gross domestic product (GDP) to research and development (R&D). Belgium has decided to pursue this objective. But, as in many areas, the policy for research financing and support exists in a complex institutional landscape in our country: fundamental research is mainly financed by the Communities, applied research, by the Regions, and the federal state exempts researchers partially from tax on wages, in firms as well as in universities and public research institutions.

In this multi-level management context, it is difficult to evaluate the extent to which Belgium meets the objective of 3%, especially from a regional perspective and with a focus on the Brussels Region. This involves, in particular, an evaluation of the share of R&D expenditure made by the Communities in this territory.

In issue number 82 of Brussels Studies, Hervé Devillé has resolutely taken a regional point of view and thus complements the work which favours a community point of view and disregards the Brussels figures. The author is an economist at Université libre de Bruxelles and Université Catholique de Lille, and in this article breaks down the expenditure at community level to establish figures in a consolidated regional framework. His analysis thus attempts to highlight the effort at regional level via GDP forecasts, R&D expenditure and its distribution between the private and public sectors for 2020.

In terms of consolidated public expenditure, if the growth rate is maintained at 6.25% as observed between 2005 and 2011, expenditure for Brussels-Capital Region would reach 0.87% of the GDP in 2020. If the 6.51% growth rate from the 2005-2011 period is maintained, the private sector should reach 1.02% of the GDP in 2020 for private R&D expenditure. With respect to the hypotheses considered, overall, the Brussels Region would only reach 1.9% of the GDP in 2020, mainly due to insufficient private R&D expenditure in the regional territory. The Flemish Region would reach the objective of 3% in 2020 and the Walloon Region would exceed it. At national level, Belgium would thus reach the objective of 3% in 2020 thanks to compensations, in particular in terms of private expenditure, between the Walloon and Brussels regions. This obviously raises the question as to the administrative limits of the Brussels Region. If the metropolitan context is considered, there would of course be an entirely different view, with a significant share of R&D in the Walloon Region as well as Flemish Region located in the two Brabant Regions.

Two conclusions emerge clearly from this analysis with respect to Brussels. Firstly, there is essentially a lack of private research expenditure in the Brussels-Capital Region, which is compensated by good results in Wallonia. Secondly, if the objectives set for 2020 are to be reached, the biggest proportion of the effort must come from Brussels, to the extent that the national objectives must be met in a uniform manner by the Regions via a simple transposition.

The consolidation exercise carried out in this article shows that the continuation of competitive research is a question of financial means and the involvement of all stakeholders (public and private), and in the Belgian institutional context, it is also a question of coordination and transposition of objectives between the different federated entities and levels of authority.

References
Devillé, Hervé, “Regional financing for research and development expenditure. Brussels and the 'Europe 2020' objective”, Brussels Studies [Online], General collection, No 82, December 21st 2014. URL: https://journals.openedition.org/brussels/1250
Contact
Tatiana Debroux, Editor in chief:
tdebroux[at]brusselsstudies.be