EU R&D investment recovers strongly – but is still behind global competitors

The ‘EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard’ conducted by the European Commission has looked at the figures from 2009-2010 and has concluded that although investment in R&D by top EU companies has recovered significantly from a decrease in 2009, the data is still lagging behind major players from the US and parts of Asia.

The top 50 companies for R&D investment included 15 from the EU, 18 firms from the US and 13 Japanese firms. The two top spots were held by pharmaceutical companies from Switzerland and the US – Roche (€7.2bn) and Pfizer (€7bn) respectively. The biggest EU investor in R&D was Volkswagen (€6.3bn) followed by Nokia, Daimler and Sanofi-Aventis.

The EU Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, has called the results “a positive signal” in boosting jobs and growth through innovation. She added, “However, the fact that we are still lagging behind some global competitors shows we have to improve conditions for business further, in line with our Innovation Union goals. We need quick adoption and implementation of recent and up-coming European Commission proposals on the unitary patent, on standards, public procurement and risk capital."

The 1400 companies involved in the data have demonstrated a 3% increase in employment from 2009, a number of more than 40 million people. The past eight years' trends show that employment growth in R&D-intensive sectors is generally higher than in other sectors and less affected by the economic downturn, a crucial factor in turning research into products, employment and jobs. More than two thirds of the investment by the EU on the Scoreboard is from companies located in the three largest Member States. German companies show the highest one-year growth at an increase of 8.1%, mostly due to a few automotive companies - Daimler, Volkswagen and BMW.

Click here to read the full details of the report.

Published: Tuesday, 18th October 2011 by Ellen Haggan