Illustrative stock photo (source: Sme)
Although the government declares support of research and development, many of the approved measures are not being effective. In the European Union, Slovakia is one of the leaders in formally introducing new reforms; however their quality and particularly their implementation utterly lag behind.
Lack of rules, corruption and questionable allocation of science and research funds, for instance €300 million in 2016 under Minister Plavčan or €33 million under Minister Lubyová – all this characterizes R&D in Slovakia. Slovakia is therefore one of the countries with the lowest support of R&D in the EU. According to Eurostat data, Austria invests 3.16 percent of GDP into research, while Slovakia with 0.88 percent, together with Romania (0.5 percent), Latvia (0.51 percent), Malta (0.55 percent) and Cyprus (0.56 percent), ranks among the last in the EU when R&D support is concerned.
