Publications
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PDF The 2012 Survey on R&D Investment Business Trends
The report contains the main findings of the seventh survey on R&D investment business trends based on 187 responses of… Show more mainly large companies from the 1000 EU-based companies in the 2011 EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard. These 187 companies are responsible for R&D investment worth almost €56 billion, constituting around 40% of the total R&D investment of the 1000 EU Scoreboard companies. The main findings are as follows: Companies expect to maintain robust R&D investment increases (average 4% p.a.) over the next three years. These expectations indicate a positive and stable trend for R&D investment growth as observed before the 2008 economic and financial crises. The responding companies report significant shares of sales coming from innovative products and services introduced in the past three years: from 33% to 10% in high and low R&D intensity sectors respectively.The average share of sales coming from new innovative products and services was 18%. Almost half of the respondents named themselves as the innovation leader in the sector. R&D within the company is the most important component of innovation, followed by market research related activities for new product introduction. Collaboration agreements were a more important way of knowledge sharing than licencing. For the impact of factors and policies on the company's innovation activities, national public support had the most positive effect. Labour costs and conditions of Intellectual Property Rights (enforcement, time and costs) continue to be perceived as negative factors for company innovations. This underlines the importance of an efficient IPR regime for the support of company innovations. The majority of R&D collaboration agreements with other companies are with customers or suppliers (vertical agreements), while less than 10% are made with competitors. More than one fifth of the respondents preferred Germany as the most attractive location for outsourcing R&D, mostly because of a very high share of statements from the home country, followed closely by the US. The US is the most attractive source of Intellectual Property Rights, followed by Germany. Among the types of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) licencing, licencing-in ranges before licencing-out. Favourable tax treatment of licencing revenue would encourage more licencing activity. High R&D intensive companies report the highest licencing-in expenditure and licencing-out revenues. Show less
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PDF The 2010 Survey on R&D Investment Business Trends
This report presents the findings of the sixth survey on trends in business R&D investment. These are based on 205… Show more responses of mainly larger companies from the 1000 EU-based companies in the 2010 EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard. These 205 companies are responsible for R&D investment worth almost €40 billion, constituting around 30% of the total R&D investment of the 1000 EU Scoreboard companies. The main findings are as follows: Companies' R&D investment is expected to grow by 5%, more than double the expectations of last year's survey. The expectations have however not yet reached the levels prior to the crisis (7% in the 2007 survey). The EU-based companies in the sample carry out one-quarter of their R&D outside the EU. The shares of R&D investment carried out in China and India are around 5%, which is a similar value to previous surveys and a relatively low share in the light of globalisation. Their expectations for R&D investment growth within the EU have increased to 3%, leading to a considerable nominal increase of R&D in the EU in the coming years. However, growth rate expectations are much higher in China (25%), Japan (17%), the rest of the world (20%), India (8%), other European countries (8%) and the US and Canada (5%). This reflects the increasing participation of European companies in the global economy, in particular emerging economies, while maintaining their R&D focus in the EU. Most companies chose their home country as the most attractive location for R&D, and identified the US, China, Germany and India as the most attractive locations outside their home country. R&D is the most important component of innovation for companies which invest most in R&D. In low R&D intensity sectors, greater increases in innovation investments are expected. The responding companies report that an average 27% of annual sales came from innovative products and services introduced in the past three years. Availability of qualified personnel and public support had a clearly positive effect on the company's innovation activities. Different aspects related to Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs), namely the conditions for putting them into force, the costs, and the time to obtain protection, are perceived as negative for all sectors. Recruitment of qualified employees, collaboration with universities and companies and participation in conferences were important for company innovation. The patterns and trends of knowledge sharing activities are similar to those observed for R&D investment, i.e. a focus within the EU, but with stronger growth expected outside. Show less
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PDF The 2009 Survey on R&D Investment Business Trends
This document presents the findings of the fifth survey on trends in business R&D investment. These are based on the… Show more responses from 185 EU-based Scoreboard companies, reporesenting an R&D investment of almost € 48 billion (over one third of the total R&D of the 1000 EU Scoreboard companies). The main findings are as follows: The companies' R&D investment is expected to grow by 2% annually over 2010-12, half the amount expected according to last year's survey, reflecting the ongoing effects of the economic crisis. More than half of the respondents made changes to the management of their R&D investments as a result of the economic crisis. Around 40% of the respondents said there was no change. The companies, all EU-based, invest around one fourth of their R&D outside (mainly the US and Canada (around 12%), followed by India (3.1%), China (2.4%), other European countries (2.1%), Japan (1.9%) and the Rest of the World). They expect strong R&D investment increases outside the EU, especially in China and India. The resulting R&D investment outflow implies sustained but smooth changes in R&D investment shares in world regions. Tax incentives appear to be particularly important for high R&D intensive companies. With respect to last year's survey, these companies also attach a great deal of importance to regulatory intervention to improve product markets and framework conditions, aligning their views with the rest of the sectors. European Technology Platforms appear to be more relevant to low R&D intensity sectors. R&D is the most important component of innovation for the companies which invest most in R&D. In low R&D intensity sectors, greater increases in innovation investments are expected. Show less
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PDF The 2008 Survey on R&D Investment Business Trends
This document presents the findings of the fourth survey on trends in business R&D investment. While continuing along similar lines… Show more as previous editions, it contains further insights into (mainly larger) company expectations about their future R&D investments and the underlying motivations. The results are drawn from 130 responses from the 1000 EU-based companies listed in the 2007 EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard. These 130 companies are responsible for R&D investment worth almost €40 billion, constituting 30% of the total R&D investment by the EU Scoreboard companies. Show less
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PDF The 2007 Survey on R&D Investment Business Trends
This report presents the results of "The 2007 EU Survey on R&D Investment Business Trends". It provides new insights into… Show more company expectations about future R&D investments and their motivations for investing in research. The results are drawn from the responses received from 118 large companies in the EU. These companies are responsible for a total global R&D investment of almost €28 billion, constituting 23% of the total R&D investment of the European Scoreboard companies. Show less
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PDF The 2006 Survey on R&D Investment Business Trends
This is the second survey on R&D investment business trends. It provides new insights into company expectations about future R&D… Show more investments and their motivations to invest in research. The results are drawn from 110 responses out of the 700 of the European companies appearing in the 2005 EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard. The responding companies are responsible for a total global R&D investment of almost €25 billion, constituting a considerable share (24.3%) of the total R&D investment by the European Scoreboard companies. Show less
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PDF The 2005 Survey on R&D Investment Business Trends
Increasing and improving Research and Development (R&D) investment in Europe is at the heart of the EU's Lisbon Strategy. However,… Show more information permitting consistent comparisons, across the EU and across different sectors, of current and prospective trends in R&D investment practices of firms is presently not available. In order to support policy-makers in this field and monitor progress towards the Lisbon targets, the present survey gathers information, at a European level, on factors and issues which surround and influence R&D investment in companies. The survey is also a valuable source of information for companies and analysts in order to assess trends at corporate level. Introduction This pilot survey on R&D investment business trends provides new insights into company expectations about future R&D investments and their motivations to invest in research. The main results are as follows: Companies expect their global investments in R&D to grow by around 5 % p.a. for the next three years. These expectations reflect the dominance in the sample of the companies in pharmaceuticals & biotechnology and chemicals, which together account for almost 60 % of the total R&D investment of all companies in the sample. The incentives to increase R&D investment most often cited in the responses are: changes in market demand for new products and services, changes in technological opportunities, and changes in company turnover or profit. Changes in the availability and labour costs of researchers are the least often cited incentives for increasing R&D investment. Own funds are by far the principal source for financing the company's R&D, followed by tax incentives and public grants. Companies outsource an average of 18 % of their R&D investment. Around two thirds of this goes to other companies and one third to public research organisations. The sector which outsources most of its R&D is pharmaceuticals and biotechnology (25%), and the least is IT hardware (5%). The most important factors when deciding where to locate R&D are: market access, high availability of researchers, access to specialised R&D knowledge and results, macroeconomic and political stability, and R&D cooperation opportunities. The often mentioned labour costs of researchers seem to be less significant. The survey confirms the view that companies continue to prefer to locate R&D in their home-country. Therefore, the top locations for R&D activity in Europe continue to be Germany, the United Kingdom and France. Outside the EU, the US remained by far the most attractive place for locating R&D activity, followed by China and India. New products resulting from R&D are mainly exploited by the company itself. The results are drawn from the responses received from 449 companies covering ten sectors: automobiles & parts, chemicals, electronic & electrical equipment, engineering & machinery, food producers & processors, health, IT hardware, pharmaceuticals & biotechnology, steel & other metals and support services. Taken together, the 449 responding companies are responsible for a total global R&D investment of almost €30 billion, which is a significant share of European business investment in R&D. Show less