R&D remains a priority to the private sector

The European Commission has published the amounts spent by the top 1400 companies worldwide on research and development. Although R&D investment for European countries dropped in 2009, it did not drop as dramatically as sales and profits – indicating R&D remains a priority within the private sector.

The facts for 2009 - Countries
Europe - investment in R&D dropped by 2.6%. In the same companies, sales dropped by 10.1% and profits 21.0%.
Germany – down 3.2%
France – down 4.5%
Finland – down 6.0%
Sweden – down 6.6%
Switzerland (outside EU) – grew
US – investment dropped by 5.1%.
Worldwide – investment dropped by 1.9%.
Asia – many countries have seen growth; China (up 40.0%), India (27.3%), Hong Kong (14.8%), South Korea (9.1%) and Taiwan (3.1%)

The facts for 2009 – Companies
Toyota (Japan) is the world's biggest R&D investor (€6.8bn) for the second consecutive year.
Three EU companies feature in the top ten: Volkswagen, the biggest investor based in Europe with €5.8bn followed by Nokia and Sanofi-Aventis.
The top 50 includes 16 EU companies, 19 US firms and 12 from Japan.
The Scoreboard now includes 15 companies (9 more than last year) fully focused on clean energy technology.

Opinion
Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science said: "The fact that major EU firms have largely maintained their R&D investment shows that they recognise R&D as key to emerging stronger from the crisis. But the wide gap with the top US companies in areas like software and biotechnology and the continuing rapid rise of Asian-based companies highlight the innovation emergency Europe is facing. . We urgently need heads of state and government at the December European Council to back the Innovation Union proposals that Antonio Tajani and I announced on 6 October."

The Study
The EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard is published annually by the European Commission (DG Research and Joint Research Centre) and provides information on the world's top 1400 companies (400 from the EU and 1000 from outside) ranked by their investments in R&D. It measures the total value of their global R&D investment, irrespective of the location where the relevant R&D takes place. It does not therefore indicate trends in private sector R&D intensity – business R&D expenditure in a particular country or region as a proportion of GDP, whether that expenditure is by home-grown companies or through inward investment.

Further Information
2010 "EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard" and other IRMA (Industrial Research Investment Monitoring and Analysis) reports:

http://iri.jrc.ec.europa.eu/reports.htm

Published: Thursday, 28th October 2010 by Adelle Kehoe