Brussels, 05/10/2007 (Agence Europe) - Corporate research and development (R&D) investment within the EU increased 7.4% in 2006, which was up on the 2005 score of 5.3% growth, according to the results of a study published by the European Commission on Friday 5 October. The German company, DaimlerChrysler, is the top EU company with R&D investment amounting to €5.2 billion. “We are only ever going to improve our R&D performance if more companies see the benefit of investing in research”, Janez Potocnik, European Science and Research Commissioner, states in a press release. “The positive upward trend in R&D investment seen in the last two years is encouraging, and leads me to believe that our innovation strategy is on the right track. But we must not allow ourselves to be complacent - quite the opposite: we should reinforce the positive measures already taken to consolidate and improve private investment in R&D”, he added. On the downside, the study shows that R&D investment by EU companies is increasing at a lower rate than their non-EU counterparts. R&D investment by the latter was up 10% last year throughout the world. With €5.8 billion in such investment, the American group, Pfizer, is the leading R&D investor worldwide. This difference is primarily explained by a growth rate in high R&D-intensive sectors outside the EU of almost twice that within the EU. These sectors also account for a much larger proportion of R&D outside the EU. Nevertheless, the EU did record the highest growth in fixed capital investment, the Commission notes. In coming months, it will be publishing the 2006 EU Survey on R&D Investment Business Trends with information about 110 R&D EU companies' investment expectations for the period 2007-2009. This survey provides new insights into company expectations about future R&D investments and their motivations to invest in research. The preliminary results confirm the positive trends of the 2007 scoreboard, which is available at the following address: http: //iri.jrc.ec.europa.eu (bc)