GBAORD in the Czech Republic

Among main duties of the government in the science and technology area, respective in research and development area, belongs also the role of policy maker, who establishes the strategy of the research and development policy in medium-term period. In the Czech republic, the national research and development policy is declared in the document “National research and development policy of the Czech republic ¹. For the R&D policy is responsible the R&D Council together with the Ministry of Education. It is important to know information (data) about the level of investment into the R&D and human resources. The data provider of this information is just the Czech Statistical Office.

For the support of decision-making, which fields of R&D need to strengthen funding in forthcoming years, was launched the GBAORD project within the EU member states several decades ago. The aim of GBAORD (Government Budget Appropriations or Outlays for R&D by Socio-economic Objectives) is providing data about the government support of R&D funding from public budgets broken down by socio-economic objectives.

Legislative background:

Within the European Community, the GBAORD project is organized on obligatory base under Commission regulation (EC) No 753/2004 of 22 April 2004 implementing Decision No 1608/2003/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards statistics on science and technology. The collecting of GBAORD data is obligatory for the Czech republic.

Methodological sources:

Methodological information about the GBAORD project can be found in the international manual “Proposed standard practice for survey on research and experimental development” famous like “Frascati manual” (revised version 2002), which has arisen as a result of initiatives by the OECD. GBAORD data are broken down by socio-economic objectives on the basis of NABS: Nomenclature for the analysis and comparison of scientific programmes and budgets (rev. 1992, Eurostat 1994).

Conception of GBAORD:

Unlike other statistical surveys carried out in the field of research and development, GBAORD data are based on the analysis and identification of all appropriations spent on research and development (R&D) from public budgets. These government R&D appropriations are broken down by socio-economic objectives. This means that the approach is based on the funder of research and development activities unlike performance-based approach, which is using for example in the R&D survey (VTR5-01).

GBAORD covers all appropriations or outlays allocated to R&D in public budgets to support research and development, including all contributions to international R&D programmes or institutions abroad. Data are based on final budget appropriations (figures as voted by parliament for the coming year – provisional data) and actual outlays (money paid out during the year – final data). Public budgets cover the central government budget and provincial budgets. The central government is always included and provincial government is included when its contribution is significant. Local government funds are excluded.

GBAORD includes both current costs and capital expenditure.

GBAORD also covers general university funds (Chapter 10: General research financed from Ministry of Education), which has been defined using narrow definition in line with the Frascati manual as a sum of money devoted to universities from the Ministry of Education in support their overall research activities.²

Codes of socio-economic objectives are distributed according to the purpose or general content of the R&D programme or project.

Transmitting of GBAORD data:

GBAORD data are transmitted to Eurostat (on obligatory base) and OECD (on voluntary base of membership) twice a year like: 1) provisional data and 2) final data. On the above mentioned legal act, GBAORD data are submitted to Eurostat like provisional (government R&D appropriations in the provisional budget – as approved by the Parliament at the beginning of the budget year) within 6 months of the end oh the calendar year and final data (government R&D appropriations in the final budget) within 12 months of the end oh the calendar year.

The Chapters (main socio-economic objectives) of the 1992 version of the NABS are entitled:

1. Exploration and exploitation of the Earth
2. Infrastructure and general planning of land-use
3. Control and care of the environment
4. Protection and improvement of human health
5. Production, distribution and rational utilization of energy
6. Agricultural production and technology
7. Industrial production and technology
8. Social structures and relationships
9. Exploration and exploitation of space
10. Research financed from General University Funds
11. Non-oriented research
12. Other civil research
13. Defence




¹⁾ The latest version of the document „National Research and Development Policy of the Czech Republic for 2004-2008“ can be available on the following website: http://www.vyzkum.cz/FrontClanek.aspx?idsekce=5580 .

²⁾ In the case of the Czech republic, the general university funds are not defined. For this reason, chapter 10 covers in line with the guideline of the Frascati manual money devoted to universities from the Ministry of Education in support their overall research activities. Chapter 10 has taken name “general university research”, which is using in accordance with the statistical survey VTR5-01.