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 European Commission's 2012 EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard for the top 1,500 global R&D investors, published on 6 December. The top 50 worldwide includes 15 EU companies, 18 US firms and 12 Japanese firms. Toyota, the Japanese car manufacturer, ranks top, with Volkswagen, the top EU company, in third place with €7.2 billion invested. Recently released Eurostat data shows that combined EU public and private research spending increased to 2.03% of GDP in 2011, from 2.01% in 2010. This was mainly due to increased private sector spending.
In the EU, R&D growth figures in 2011 are to a large extent driven by the automobile sector (16.2% growth), which accounts for the biggest share of R&D investment in the EU (25%). Companies based in Germany, which account for around one third of the EU's total private R&D investment, increased R&D by 9.5%. Companies in the UK and France, which also account for a large proportion of private research, enjoyed growth of 13.1% and 7.6% respectively.
In comments on the publication of the “scoreboard”, the commissioner for research, Maire Geoghegan-Quinn, said: “Knowledge is the lifeblood of European competitiveness, so the increase in R&D investment by EU companies is a call to arms in our battle for growth and jobs. We now need to match private sector ambition with increased investment in R&D at national and European levels. EU leaders should send a strong signal by approving an ambitious budget for Horizon 2020, our future programme for research and innovation”. (OL/transl.jl)