Brussels, 06/12/2012 (Agence Europe) - Despite the economic and financial crisis, top EU firms continue to rely on research and development (R&D) to give them the competitive edge they need. They increased R&D investment from 6.1% in 2010 to 8.9% in 2011. This nearly matches that by US companies (9%), is higher than the global average (7.6%) and is far ahead of that by Japanese firms (1.7%). R&D-intensive sectors tend to show above average employment growth. These are the key findings of the...