Presently, BEL’s R&D manpower is 2,162, of which, 1,863 are engineers. D&E divisions of BEL pursue various categories of projects: in-house development projects, joint development or ToT projects with DRDO / other national design agencies and ToT or joint development projects with foreign vendors. Usually, 50 to 60% of the turnover is from BEL designed products, 20 to 25% of turnover is from products designed by DRDO and other National Design Agencies and the remaining from foreign collaborations.

The annual R&D expenditure is about 8% of BEL's sales turnover. BEL regularly recruits young engineers based on the identification of required competencies for the R&D divisions. There are schemes for on-the-job training after placement and facilities for continuous learning for these engineers. There are recognition and reward schemes for excellence among R&D engineers.

BEL R&D units are recognised by the Department of Scientific & Industrial Research (DSIR) under the Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India. BEL's Software Technology Centre at Bangalore has the recognition of Capability Maturity Model (CMM) Level 5 Rating from Software Engineering Institute (SEI).