Publications
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The impact of the EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard in Science and Policy
The EU Industrial research and development (R&D) Investment Scoreboard (Scoreboard) provides data and economic analysis to monitor corporate R&D and… Show more inform EU policy since 2004. This study investigates the influence of this annual report on both science and policy. Our findings reveal that while the Scoreboard has been more frequently cited in policy documents than in peer-reviewed papers, academic interest is growing. In policy, it has influenced the EU policy narrative regarding the EU corporate R&D intensity gap relative to its competitors. In science, citations are more often linked to specific analytical insights of the reports than to the underlying data. However, studies combining Scoreboard and patent data receive relatively more citations, highlighting the value of integrating diverse data to better understand innovation dynamics. Interestingly, policy documents citing the Scoreboard exhibit a shorter citation time window than academic papers, reflecting its immediate relevance to policy debates. Show less
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Green and digital patenting of Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard companies
This analysis, along with the brief ‘Green Patenting in the Digital Techno Economic Ecosystem’ [2], examine patent-driven innovation for the… Show more twin transition through two distinct but complementary approaches, with a particular focus on EU Industrial R&D Scoreboard firms. This brief investigates how these firms perform in innovation at the intersection of climate change mitigation technologies and digital technologies, which either transform our interaction with energy systems or mitigate their additional energy consumption. The Digital Techno-Economic ecoSystem (DGTES) approach uses 'green' patent codes to explore twin innovation within the digital ecosystem to analyse EU’s global position and its industrial composition. Despite differences in methodology, both studies converge on key messages, strengthening the validity of shared conclusions referenced in both briefs.This document has been published within the context of the Global Industrial Research & Innovation Analyses (GLORIA) project that is jointly carried out by the European Commission’s Directorate General for Re-search and Innovation Directorate E – Prosperity, and the Joint Research Centre Directorate B - Fair and Sustainable Economy. GLORIA has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under a specific action for scientific and technical services by the Joint Research Centre (JRC) over the period 2022-2025. The main expected impact of GLORIA is the better understanding of corporate Research & Development (R&D) efforts in relation to the EU’s long-term 3% of GDP R&D investment policy target and the EU policy objectives regarding competitiveness, the green deal and sustainability. Show less
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Path to innovation: an Economic Complexity analysis of technological perspectives in the EU
Over the past 25 years, the world has witnessed a significant surge in patenting activity, underscoring the crucial role of… Show more frontier technologies in driving economic growth and competitiveness. While the EU remains a leading global innovator, its competitive edge is under threat. To address this challenge, the EU must create a vibrant industrial ecosystem that nurtures innovation. Advanced Materials, with their potential to transform industries and enable breakthrough innovations, are a crucial component of this ecosystem, and offer a unique opportunity to strengthen the EU's economic growth, competitiveness, strategic autonomy, and digital and green transformation. This report is intended to lend support to the implementation of EU policies aimed at revitalising the EU economy – such as the forthcoming Advanced Materials Act – by identifying areas where Europe can enhance its technological leadership. The analysis is grounded in the Economic Complexity approach, which provides a framework to analyse the existing technological capabilities of the EU, and to identify untapped diversification opportunities for the Member States and their regions. The results of this report suggest that the EU leadership in many traditional technologies is threatened by rising innovation activities by its main competitors, mainly China and the US. To close its innovation gap, the EU can leverage its existing capabilities to enhance competitiveness in Advanced Materials, particularly in areas such as Biomaterials, Glass, and Cements. Show less
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Challenges and opportunities for the EU labour market from AI development
The European Commission adopted the Digital Europe Programme to equip the EU workforce with the necessary skills to cope with… Show more labour market changes induced from innovation in ad-vanced digital technologies as AI. → Clerical work and cognitive tasks are considered to be more exposed to AI substitution, whereas manual, operational, and technical tasks are comparatively less exposed. → AISE is a job-specific AI exposure metric based on data from financed start-ups whose output could potentially replace a job. → Results reveal the existence of a gap between potential and actual AI exposure, as start-ups are more likely to adopt AI development in niche tasks. → The AISE-based analysis reveals that cognitive jobs are heterogeneously AI-exposed, and exposure depends on advanced cognitive skills requirements. → Beyond technical feasibility and economic via-bility, ethical and social considerations and trust in AI capabilities determine job expo-sure to AI. → Considering EU countries’ structure of the la-bour market, Germany and Belgium are the most actually AI-exposed. The largest gap be-tween potential and actual exposure is de-tected for Sweden and Italy, the former be-ing more potentially AI-exposed than actu-ally. The opposite is true for Italy Show less
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EU competitiveness in net-zero technologies: Insights from patents and economic complexity
The EU seeks to prioritise investments in strategic technologies where it can be competitive. An approach for assessing the EU's potential… Show more competitiveness in new and established technologies is presented, applying Natural Language Processing to patent data and using the Economic Complexity framework. Technical expert knowledge is not a required input (but useful for interpretation). By way of example, it is applied to 15 net-zero technologies of the Net Zero Industry Act. The results show a potentially high EU manufacturing competitiveness for wind, heat recovery and ocean technologies, and the opposite for photovoltaics and batteries. The method is cross-checked by comparison with independent analysis of the JRC’s Clean Energy Technology Observatory. Detailed analyses of individual Member States' technological capabilities are also possible, to identify where specific technologies find the most fertile ground to flourish – e.g. Germany for electricity grid hardware and Italy for heat recovery technology. The approach can zoom into subclasses and variants of technologies; e.g., Carbon Capture and Storage appears overall to have low prospects, but zooming in reveals that the EU could be a leader in capture technologies (but is weaker in storage and transport). Show less
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Strategic technologies and industrial polices for competitiveness and sustainability
This policy brief provides a digest of the scientific evidence and policy implications of the European Commission’s Conference on Corporate… Show more R&D and Innovation (CONCORDi 2025), which took place in Seville on 24-26 September 2026. The conference focused on strategic technologies, industrial policies, economic competitiveness, and sustainability, and it featured 63 academic presentations, 2 keynote talks, 2 policy round tables, 4 policy special sessions, and a science-for-policy debate. The conference highlighted the role of strategic technologies, such as AI, in helping Europe overcome the mid-tech trap, while also addressing their heterogeneous effects on labor markets. It emphasised the necessity for Europe to avoid low-productivity R&D and the importance of large R&D investors in driving higher returns through riskier and higher quality projects. This policy brief underscores the significance of supporting universities and public research centers in long-term research and fostering collaboration with firms. It addresses the incompleteness of the EU single market and calls for more capital market policies and integration efforts to remove barriers preventing firm growth. The integration of green and digital strategies is identified as essential for sustainable innovation, requiring complementary investments and institutional support. The brief discusses the importance of tailored industrial policies with directionality to accelerate transitions and strengthen technological sovereignty while minimizing negative side effects. The brief concludes by remarking that further research is needed to understand the enabling conditions for strategic technologies and to improve the measurement of policy impacts, ensuring adaptive and evidence-based policymaking. Show less
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Scoreboard firms’ capabilities in advanced manufacturing
This document describes the industrial landscape and patent-driven innovation in the advanced manufacturing (AM) ecosystem using the Digital Techno-Economic ecoSystem… Show more (DGTES) approach. It compares the DGTES ecosystem performance of the EU, US and China and positions the global top innovators from the EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard. Over 70% of global AM firms are concentrated in China (45%), the US (17%), and Europe (10%), pointing to a clear regional dominance in the DGTES AM ecosystem. The EU is still well positioned relative to its number of activities in critical technologies for the AM industry, like´3D Printing´. The EU and Japan have higher R&D investment and patent filings of Scoreboard firms compared to the broader DGTES AM ecosystem (e.g., 16% vs. 10% in the EU) making them candidates for driving the uptake of AM technologies. However, China leads in overall AM ecosystem patent activity. ´3D printing´ dominates the AM ecosystem (27%), but Scoreboard firms excel in ´Power Electronics´ (35% vs. 20%). The manufacturing sector leads in both (47% overall, 68% for Scoreboard firms), with significant presence in ´ICT´ and ´professional services´. In conclusion, advanced manufacturing represents both a strength and a challenge for Europe. The EU hosts a strong traditional manufacturing sector and possesses a strong innovation base, which combined can lead to a rapid expansion of the AM ecosystem. However, the state of play of the European AM ecosystem compared to China and the US suggest the EU faces challenges in terms of scale, diffusion, and geographical balance. By leveraging its existing industrial policy instruments, ensuring coordination across Member States, and aligning R&D, skills, and investment strategies, the EU can turn AM into a cornerstone of its competitiveness, resilience, and twin transition agendas. Show less
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Green Patenting of EU vs. Global Competitors in the Digital Techno Economic Ecosystem
This study underscores the EU's progress and challenges in the twin transition, offering insights into the EU's competitive position and… Show more potential areas for policy action. Despite twin patents filed by EU players increasing on average of 14% annually since 2009, the number of patents is still far behind those from China and the US, clear leaders in twin technologies innovations. China and the US host also most co-applicants for patent filings of EU-based players, and the study underscores potential dependencies on Chinese partnerships. Show less
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M&As, Innovation and Superstar Firms
JRC Working Papers on Corporate R&D and Innovation No 3/2025 Rising market concentration and the dominance of `superstar' firms have sparked… Show more concerns about declining competition and innovation. While technological change and globalisation are key drivers, mergers and acquisitions (M&As) may also play a role. This paper investigates whether firms use technological M&As — acquisitions of innovative subsidiaries with patent portfolios — to enhance market power. Using a global panel of 8,314 publicly listed firms from 2008 to 2020 and a staggered difference-in-differences approach, we find that such acquisitions increase acquiring firms’ markups by 2% on average. Effects are stronger among top R&D investors, US-based firms, and those in high-tech manufacturing. The main mechanism appears to be greater insulation from competitors via acquired patents, which limit knowledge spillovers and raise entry barriers. These findings highlight the need for antitrust policies that balance innovation incentives with the risks of growing market power. Show less
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Small-World Networks, Dynamics and Proximity in Investment Decisions
Using deal-level micro data from the Dealroom database, we construct a dynamic co-investment syndication network to examine the influence of… Show more cultural proximity and geospatial proximity between investors and start-ups, as well as the network position of global VC firms on investment decisions in European-based start-ups. By applying a linear probability regression model with high-dimensional fixed effects over the period 2015-2022, we confirm that both cultural and spatial proximity significantly facilitate VC investment. Moreover, our analysis reveals that a prominent network position — characterized by how well-connected (degree centrality) and how influential (Katz centrality) within the co-investment network— substantially enhances VC investments on account of the facilitated sharing of information, contacts, and resources among investors. Furthermore, our findings reveal that small-world networks, characterized by high clustering coefficients, facilitate investments in distant start-ups, helping to overcome spatial constraints—an aspect largely overlooked in the literature. Small-world syndication networks foster trust among members, complementing each other through differentiation and specialization in industrial knowledge and local markets, potentially altering risk-averse behaviour and enabling investments that transcend geographical boundaries. Show less