• Data reference period
• Geographic localization (NUTS - 2002)
• Sector of performance

• RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT:  All systematically performed creative work aimed at expanding knowledge, including the knowledge of humankind, culture and society, as well as the use of this stock of knowledge in new applications.
• SECTOR OF PERFORMANCE - GOVERNMENT:  The performance sector of government in the context of the survey of national technological and scientific potential comprises all general government bodies and related entities, irrespective of their contextual level (central, regional or local) and the respective funding sources, that supply collective services and which coordinate the administration of public assets and implement the economic and social policy of the collective. The sector also comprises private NPIs controlled and primarily funded by the State.
• SECTOR OF PERFORMANCE HIGHER EDUCATION:  The performance sector of higher education in the context of the survey of national technological and scientific potential comprises all universities, higher education institutions, polytechnic and other post-secondary education establishments, regardless of the source of their financial resources and their legal status. Also included are all institutions (research centres and institutions, hospitals and clinics, etc.) that operate under the direct control of higher education establishments or are managed by these. The sector further comprises private NPIs controlled and primarily funded by Higher Education.
• INSTITUTIONAL UNIT:  The institutional unit is an elementary economic decision-making centre characterized by uniformity of behaviour and decision-making autonomy in the exercise of its principal function. A resident unit is regarded as constituting an institutional unit if it has decision-making autonomy in respect of its principal function and either keeps a complete set of accounts or it would be possible and meaningful, from both an economic and legal viewpoint, to compile a complete set of accounts if they were required.
• GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT:  Final result of the production activity of resident producer units and it can be defined in three ways: production approach, expenditure approach and income approach.
• SECTOR OF PERFORMANCE - PRIVATE NON-PROFIT-MAKING INSTITUTIONS:  The performance sector of private non-profit-making institutions in the context of the survey of national technological and scientific potential comprises private or semi-public bodies that have not been founded for profit-making purposes. Basically, this sector comprises scientific and professional enterprises, foundations and research institutions dependent on associations and foundations.
• REFERENCE PERIOD:  Period to which the information refers and which may be a specific day or a time interval (month, fiscal year, calendar year, among others).

(Total expenditures in R&D/ GDPmp)*100