Businesses operating in the State spent an estimated €1.68 billion on research and development (R&D) last year, according to research from the Central Statistics Office and Forfás.
The preliminary data indicates 13,861 people were working in the area with approximately 70 per cent of the investment coming from multinational companies.
For multinationals the main research areas were pharmaceuticals, electronic instruments and software. For indigenous companies food and food sciences were the main areas of research.
Small firms, classed as those employing less than 50 people, spent an estimated €348 million last year.
Of those employed in the sector 8,300 were researchers. The survey also notes that the overall number of companies involved has remained consistent at around 1,200 since the survey was first conducted in 2001.
