Definition: Full-time equivalent (FTE)

Category: Research and development

An FTE may be thought of as one person-year.  Thus, a person who normally spends 30% of his or her time on R&D and the rest on other activities (e.g. teaching, administration or student counselling) should be counted as 0.3 of an FTE.  Similarly, if a full-time R&D worker is employed by an R&D unit for only 6 months, he or she is counted as 0.5 of an FTE.