EU identifies top performers in industrial R&D

The top 500 companies in the EU invested a total of €100b in Research and Development during 2003. But investment in 2003 was lower than in 2002, and non-EU companies are investing more. These are the findings of the first EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard, launched today. The Scoreboard provides instructive, up to date comparisons between companies, sectors, and geographical areas, as well as a full picture of the competitive situation of EU firms in the global R&D environment.

The top five companies in this survey (Daimler Chrysler, Siemens, Volkswagen, Nokia and Glaxo Smith Kline) are in the top 12 globally in terms of investment in research. Each of these major industrial players invested between € 4 and 5.6 billion in R&D worldwide last year. However, while the largest EU companies hold their own globally in R&D terms, the list of the top 500 shows a steep fall-off in R&D investment compared to the non-EU list. As a result, the total R&D expenditure by these companies (€ 101 billion) is about half that of the top 500 from outside the EU (€ 196 billion). The Scoreboard also shows that investment by the top 500 EU companies was 2% down on the 2002 figure, while for the non-EU500 it grew by almost 4 %.

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Source: European Commission