In the Republic of Serbia, in 2018 the amount of 18,754,517 thousand RSD of budgetary funds were spent for the Research and Development (R&D) activity.

The share of total budgetary funds for R&D in GDP reached 0.37% in 2018.

The largest percentage of the budget for research and development in 2018 came from the government sector (58.1%), followed by the tertiary education sector (27.3%). In total funds for financing research and development, funds from international organizations account for around 10%. The non-financial (business) sector accounts for around 3.4%, while only 1.3% of the funds were allocated for the non-profit sector.

Regarding the socio-economic objectives, the highest budgetary funds allocated for research and development in 2018 were spent on the goal: General Knowledge Improvement - Research and Development funded from the General University Funds - GUF (36.9%). For the goal: Industrial Production and Technology 20.9% were spent, and the least funds were spent on the goal: Exploration and Exploitation of space (0.5%).

The planned government budget appropriations or outlays for the R&D activity in 2019 (before budget adjustment) amounted to 15,707,513 thousand RSD. Most of funds, 36.7%, were intended for the objective General Advancement of Knowledge: R&D financed from the General University Funds.