Brussels, 16/11/2009 (Agence Europe) - In spite of the economic crisis, EU corporate R&D investment increased by 8.1% in 2008, according to the 2009 "EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard" published on Monday 16 November 2009. Global R&D investment growth in 2008 was lower, standing at 6.9%. Two EU companies feature in the top ten: Volkswagen in third place with an R&D investment of €5.93 billion and Nokia eighth. With an 8.1% increase, the R&D investment growth of EU companies, defined as companies having headquarters within the EU, is significantly higher than US ones for the second year, at 5.7%, and Japanese ones, at 4.4%. The world's biggest investor in R&D was Toyota Motor, with €7.61 billion. The report also shows that companies from emerging countries have the highest R&D investment growth. "It is good news that EU companies kept up their R&D investment against the background of the economic crisis in 2008. This is the best strategy to emerge stronger out of the crisis," commented EU Science and Research Commissioner Janez Potoènik. The European Commission EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard shows that EU companies managed to keep their R&D investment growth barely unchanged at 8.1% compared with 8.8% in 2007, whereas that of US companies fell from 8.6% in 2007 to 5.7% in 2008. Companies based in emerging economies continued to show the highest R&D growth, led by China with a 40% increase, India (27.3%), Taiwan (25.1%) and Brazil (18.6%). Although the impact of the crisis is not yet fully reflected in the corporate R&D investment, it is more visible in other indicators collected by the Scoreboard, like company operating profits, which dropped by 30.5% for EU companies and by 19.1% for US companies. There are two EU companies, Volkswagen and Nokia, in the top 10 R&D investors; five from the US, including Microsoft, General Motors and Pfizer; and one from Japan, Toyota, which is number one. In the Top 50 R&D investors are 16 EU companies and 18 US companies, two fewer each than in 2007, while Japan has 13 companies, four more than in 2007. Growth in R&D in the US is dominated by the high R&D intensity sectors, which include pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and IT, whereas R&D growth in the EU is more evenly spread across all industries although EU companies lead the way in cars and car parts, electronic and electrical equipment and chemicals. The scorecard confirms that high levels of R&D are being carried out in companies working on renewable energy technology. It provides information about the top 1,000 corporate R&D investors in the EU and the top 1,000 corporate R&D investors outside the EU. It can be found at http: //iri.jrc.ec.europa.eu/ (B.C./transl.fl)