China’s R&D budget, Tunisia supports researchers, Brazil’s Antarctic base…

This week in World in brief: China’s R&D budget rises 22%; Tunisia supports researchers for Horizon 2020; Fire destroys Brazil’s Antarctic base; South Africa offers SKA tax relief.

China’s R&D budget rises 22%

China’s total R&D spend last year increased by 21.9 per cent to 861 billion yuan (€103bn), to the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics claims. That was the equivalent of 1.8 per cent of the country’s GDP, which grew 9.2 per cent last year. In 2011, China spent 39.6bn yuan on basic research, and constructed 130 national research centres and 119 national engineering laboratories, says the bureau.