The paper, co-authored with Udo Ludwig and Maria Kristalova, deals with the development of indicators that capture the changes of structural interrelatedness of the R&D sector, which are expected to impact short term stabilizing effects when using R&D subsidies in fiscal policy programs. The preliminary results – although heterogeneous for the European countries – provide evidence that the external shock of an economic crisis impacts the sectoral interrelatedness and even more the technological architecture of the R&D sector.