Publications
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PDF The 2022 EU Survey on Industrial R&D Investment Trends
This report presents the results of the 2022 survey of the top 1 000 EU companies by R&D investment in 2020,… Show more conducted between June and September 2022. The survey is intended to provide insights into the research and development activities of the R&D investors listed in the 2021 EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard (Scoreboard 2021). The objective of this survey is to gather future expectations for R&D investment and gain first-hand information on barriers and drivers and the role of various activities that influence the level and direction of R&D investment. The survey addresses financing and collaboration, technology transfer and open innovation, and the effects of COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine. The response rate stood at 12%. The number of responses increased by 31.5% compared to the previous year, and the respondents accounted for over 26% of the R&D investment of the top 1 000 EU corporate investors in R&D. The results show a strong recovery in R&D investment after the COVID-19 pandemic, and the respondents expect this positive development to continue in 2022 and 2023. The main drivers of R&D investment are environmental sustainability and digitalisation. The respondents’ capital investment is largely driven by technologies to reduce emissions and to adapt to Industry 4.0. The survey thus confirms that innovative EU companies are actively helping to meet the targets set out in the European Green Deal and the green and digital transformation (the Twin Transition). Show less
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PDF The 2021 EU Survey on Industrial R&D Investment Trends
This publication is a Science for Policy report by the Joint Research Centre (JRC), the European Commission’s science and knowledge… Show more service. It aims to provide evidence-based scientific support to the European policymaking process. The scientific output expressed does not imply a policy position of the European Commission. Neither the European Commission nor any person acting on behalf of the Commission is responsible for the use that might be made of this publication. For information on the methodology and quality underlying the data used in this publication for which the source is neither Eurostat nor other Commission services, users should contact the referenced source. The designations employed and the presentation of material on the maps do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the European Union concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. Show less
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PDF The 2020 EU Survey on Industrial R&D Investment Trends
This fifteenth Survey on Industrial R&D investment trends has been separated into two dedicated questionnaires, one related to the impact… Show more of the COVID-19 pandemic (45 responses) and one regular R&D Survey (61 responses). The participating EU firms expect R&D investment to rebound by 7% in 2021 after a small decrease in 2020. While the impact on employment (both R&D and non-R&D) for the financial year of 2020 is expected to be small, the impact on Capital expenditures and Net Sales show more negative expectations, with foreseen decreases of 4.5% and 5.9%. Show less
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PDF The 2019 EU Survey on Industrial R&D Investment Trends
The 131 EU companies participating in this year's EU Survey expect R&D investments to increase by 4.6% per year in… Show more 2019 and 2020. This is slightly below the 5.4% that was expected last year, but still high in a historic perspective. Companies in the 'Health industries' and 'ICT producers' sectors expect their R&D to increase most. Ninety percent of all participating companies have both environmental and social sustainability policies in place, while the rest plans to do so in the coming 5 years. Due to European Green Deal and climate action priority of the Commission, this year's survey asked participating firms on the sustainability efforts of their companies. Companies that had environmental sustainability policies in place also had social sustainability policies in place (and vice versa). Only two companies indicated to not have either an environmental or social sustainability in place and nor is planning to implement this within the coming five years. Sustainable technologies are considered among the most relevant technologies to remain competitive in the future. Together with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Big Data, these technologies have been identified as most relevant for future competitiveness. While sustainability technologies are specifically relevant for companies from sectors that have a big impact on the environment (either as provider or supplier of sustainable solutions), AI and Big Data are expected to have a positive impact on competitiveness in a wide range of sectors. Health and Industrials invest the smallest proportion of net sales in environmental sustainability. Companies from the ICT sectors have the highest environmental sustainability intensity. While the average R&D intensity of all participants to the survey is 3.5%, this environmental sustainability intensity is 1.0%. Only less than half of the companies provided an estimation of the company's investments in environmental sustainability indicating that still many companies do not keep track of this information or find it difficult to provide even a rough estimate. This year’s expectations on the impact of Brexit on R&D strategies are much more negative than last year. The proportion of firms expecting no impact decreased from 52% to 37% while the group that expects a relevant impact on their R&D strategies multiplied from 4% to 16%. Especially the firms that responded last year that the impact depended on the negotiations turned more negative, with almost half of them expecting now a relevant impact, clearly indicating of how the situation has evolved over the last year. This information was gathered during the period March-June 2019, during which the insecurities about the implementation of the Brexit process increased significantly. 72% of all R&D is performed within the EU, which is similar to previous editions. This proportion has been stable since many years, still not showing any sign of erosion or offshoring the R&D base to other regions. In fact, the absolute amount of R&D within the EU is foreseen to grow the coming two years by 2.5% per year, from €25 to €26 billion, while the proportion of firms with R&D activities in all four of the main regions (EU, US, Asia and RoW) remains very high. For the first time since the start of the survey, R&D investment growth in China is expected to be single-digit (8.1% compared to 21.3% in the previous survey). The highest R&D increase in percentage points is expected in India (+10.4%, similar to last year). This year, with "only" a foreseen increase of 8.1%, this is the lowest foreseen increase since the start of the survey but still well above the average expected R&D growth. One out of nine companies in this survey performs R&D in only one country – in line with last year's survey. All of these firms perform their R&D exclusively in the country of the headquarters. The headquarters’ country remains an important location to perform for companies with international R&D activities: almost 80% of the firms have their main R&D location in the country of the headquarters and perform a higher proportion of their R&D in this location than firms with their main R&D location outside the company’s HQ (68% vs 42%). The US is the most popular R&D location for the top EU R&D performers that participated in this survey, followed by Germany and China. Almost half of the participants performs R&D activities in the US. For Germany and China, this is around one third of the companies. Within the EU, Germany is followed by the UK, France and Sweden. Show less
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PDF The 2018 EU Survey on Industrial R&D Investment Trends
The 142 EU companies participating in the EU Survey on Industrial R&D Investment Trends expect R&D investment to increase by… Show more 5.4% per annum in 2018 and 2019. This is higher than last year's expectation (4.7%) and indeed the highest expected increase since the pre-crisis years (2007). Companies in the ‘ICT Producers' and ‘Automobile and Other Transport' sector groups expect their R&D to increase the most. These top EU R&D performers expect their R&D within the EU to increase by 4.5% p.a., while their R&D in China and India is expected to show double digit growth (+21.3% and +11.2% respectively). The proportion of R&D investment by EU firms within the EU shows a stable trend since 2006 (at around three-quarters), not showing signs of erosion or offshoring to other regions. In absolute terms, R&D investment levels are higher than ever in the EU. EU firms are increasingly becoming truly global in their R&D activities. In the 2006 survey, only about 15% of EU firms performed R&D in the main world regions. This figure has been constantly increasing, now representing 33% of all participating firms. This confirms both the increasingly global character of R&D and the growing need for top R&D investors to be present in the main R&D locations around the world. China is expected to become the third largest region for the location of R&D activities by EU firms by 2019, after the EU and the US. The proportion of R&D investment by EU firms performed in China is expected to grow to 3.4% in 2019 (from 2.6% in 2017). Since the start of the survey, the third largest region has been the Rest of the World. However, China and India show consistently high growth expectations in all editions of the survey, indicating interesting developments in these countries that are attracting the attention of the EU's main R&D performers. As in all previous surveys, low labour costs for researchers prove not to be an important factor of attractiveness in locating R&D activities. However, there is an important caveat to this finding: firms performing R&D in China or India rate low labour costs as much more important than firms without R&D activities in these countries. Also, companies that perform R&D in many countries rate this factor as much more important than firms performing R&D in only one or a few countries. India is gaining strength as a popular R&D location and is currently second after the US. Firms that perform R&D only in the EU rate the proximity to other activities within the company and the quality of public research as highly important for their location of R&D activities. Firms with R&D activities in the US rate the proximity to suppliers and access to specialised R&D knowledge much higher than firms without R&D activities in the US. The quality of researchers is a factor that is rated consistently highly by firms with R&D activities in the EU only, or that focus on either the US or on China or India, which implies that frontier research is geographically dispersed to all regions. The most highly rated factors for locating production by EU only firms are macroeconomic stability, access to its production infrastructure and quality of personnel. Overall, the factors most often rated as (highly) attractive by firms are access to markets, quality and availability of personnel and macroeconomic stability. Low labour costs are perceived as much more important by firms that produce in China or India than firms that do not. China, Brazil, Italy and Russia remain the countries more frequently mentioned as a production location, as in last year's survey. Access to markets is an important factor for locating production activities in China or India, but not R&D. The average non-R&D expenditure of the respondents is €54 million: 29% of their R&D expenditure or a non-R&D intensity (non-R&D expenditure over net sales) of 0.5%. Firms invest mainly in applied research activities, rather than basic research. This finding is consistent over many editions of the survey and suggests that the European Innovation system has to rely on other actors (i.e. universities and public research institutes, but also start-ups and disruptive companies) for investment in basic research. The main motivation for firms to allow their employees to publish articles in scientific journals is to build the firm's reputation. This helps them to send out a message to two types of audience: venture capital funds (that may be interested in investing in a firm where relevant scientific work is produced) and other talented scientists (who may be interested in working in a scientifically stimulating environment). However, strong differences emerge when comparing firms with high publishing output to those with low output. Companies do not specifically ask for less regulation, but ask for it to be simplified. When asked what public policies should be implemented to boost private R&D and innovation activities, firms call on public authorities to complement their own action through funding research projects and increasing public-private cooperation. Show less
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PDF The 2017 EU Survey on Industrial R&D Investment Trends
The EU R&D Survey is a yearly survey amongst the top 1000 EU-based R&D investing companies from the R&D Scoreboard.… Show more The 151 participating companies in this report declared a total R&D investment from their own resources of €53.9 billion in 2016, or more than one-quarter of the total R&D investment by the 1000 companies of the 2016 EU Scoreboard. The companies that participated in the EU Survey on Industrial R&D Investment Trends expect R&D investment to increase by an average of 4.7% in the two years 2017 and 2018, with the highest growth expectations in the ‘Automobile and Other Transport' and ‘Health' sectors groups. Last year's expected growth was 1.4%. This year's expectations are the highest since 2007. If we compare only those companies that participated in the last three editions of the survey, the growth trend remains clear, with considerably higher growth expected in this year's edition (around 4.0%) than in the last two editions (around 2.5%). Participating firms expect their R&D investments within the EU to increase by 3.5% p.a., while significant increases are expected in the US (+15.1%), China (+20.2%) and India (+22.1%). The proportion of R&D performed within the EU is expected to decrease slightly from 76.0% to 73.4% and has been around three-quarters throughout the EU Survey editions since 2006. Quality and availability of researchers and macroeconomic and political stability are the factors that are rated most often as (highly) attractive by firms performing R&D in the EU only. If we look at firms that perform R&D in the US, we see that these firms value proximity to technology poles and access to markets much more highly than firms that do not perform R&D in the US. Firms performing R&D in China or India value low labour costs and proximity to suppliers much more than firms that do not perform R&D in China or India. Access to markets, macroeconomic stability and quality of personnel are most often rated as the most attractive factors by firms only producing in the EU. Low employment protection is considered least important. Firms with production activities in the US mainly value quality of personnel and access to markets as important factors for deciding on where to locate production. Around 80% of the total R&D investment made by the companies surveyed is spent in the later stages of the development process, namely applied and development activities. By contrast, ‘Basic research' accounts for only about one-tenth of all R&D investment, but also has the lowest concentration level[1] of all types of R&D, which indicates that many firms consider maintaining a level of 'Basic research' important. The largest EU R&D investors are true global players, with the US, Germany, China and France being the main locations for R&D activities. One out of three companies performs R&D in each of the four main economic areas. At the same time, the historical location decision remains an important factor for locating R&D activities: 87% of the respondents mentioned the companies' headquarters location as the country where the highest proportion of R&D is currently being performed, which indicates that the internationalisation and offshoring of R&D activities does not necessarily lead to the disappearance of the home site. This may also be because of the capital intensive investments that have been made initially at the original location. Quality and availability of researchers are factors that companies value the most for the attractiveness of an R&D location, while labour costs are the least important factor. However, low labour costs are rated as much more important by firms that perform R&D outside the EU than by firms that perform R&D only inside the EU. Together with proximity to technology poles, these are the factors that global firms perceive as much more important. Show less
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PDF The 2016 Survey on R&D Investment Business Trends
The EU R&D Survey is a yearly survey amongst the top 1000 EU-based R&D investing companies from the R&D Scoreboard.… Show more The 157 participating companies in this report declared a total R&D investment from their own resources of €59.3 billion in 2015, or one third of the total R&D investment by the 1000 companies of the 2015 EU Scoreboard. The main findings are as follows: The R&D investments expectation for the years 2016 & 17 is characterised by a decrease for big companies from the automobiles & parts sector (-0.8%). This is in stark contrast with the last two R&D Surveys where companies from this sector foresaw a healthy growth figure (around 4%) for the years 2014-15 and 2015-16. Positive expectations of R&D investments growth are the strongest in the high-tech sectors, specifically in Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals and Technology Hardware, with foreseen growth of around 7-8%. Overall the companies in the Survey expect R&D investments to grow by 1.4% p.a. as compared to 3.0% in last year's Survey. The decrease in growth expectations is mainly due to the above negative expectations in the automobiles sector, which weigh heavily on the overall sample. Without this effect, growth expectations would have been 3.8%. Growth expectations also vary by world region. The EU is the region where the lowest growth is to be expected (0.5%). India (10%), the rest of the world (4.6%) and non-EU European countries (4.5%) expect the highest growth. China shows a striking difference with previous years having passed from double digit expectations to a mere 3.1% due to shrinkage in the automobiles & parts sector. Without the companies from the automobiles & parts sector, the expectations for China would be 8 percentage points higher (11.5%) as well as 2 percentage points higher for all the other world regions. Companies tend to concentrate R&D activities in fewer locations than production activities: 34% of the companies perform R&D in 1 or 2 locations, while for production this is only 17%. The automobiles & parts sector remains the largest employer for highly-skilled workers in the EU. The sectors aerospace & defence, chemicals, oil & gas producers are characterised by a high share of R&D employees as of total employees. Labour costs are rather unimportant for deciding the location of R&D or production activities. Companies attach much more value to high availability of personnel and knowledge, access to (economically and politically stable) markets and proximity to other activities within the company. Regarding the Commission's structural reforms being pursued, the respondents see a higher potential of product market reforms and market regulation for increasing their R&D and innovation than labour market reforms. Show less
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PDF The 2015 Survey on R&D Investment Business Trends
This tenth survey on industrial R&D investment trends is based on 162 responses of mainly large firms from a subsample… Show more of the 1000 EU-based companies in the 2014 EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard. These 162 companies are responsible for €60 billion R&D investment, constituting around 36% of the total R&D investment by the 1000 EU Scoreboard companies. The main findings are as follows: The responding companies expect to increase their nominal R&D investment by 3.0% per year during 2015–17. This is a third less than the expected increases of last year's survey (4.2%) and slightly higher than the results of the one the year before (2.6%). Activities related to Key Enabling Technologies (KETs) are concentrated in environmental and social KETs. Patents filed as reported by the respondent firms are fairly distributed among the different kind of technologies surveyed. The 149 companies which provided information make one-fourth of their R&D outside the EU. Examining the distribution of the expected 3.0% R&D increases by world region, expectations for the EU are slightly lower than the average (2.6% per year over the next three years). Much higher growth is expected in the non-EU world regions: India (15.8%); China (6.9%); the United States and Canada (5.8%); and the rest of the world (3.8%). Expectations for Japan and other European countries have become slightly negative (-0.8% and -1.3%, respectively) and apply to rather small R&D investment amounts. The responding companies' expectations for R&D investment for the next three years show the ongoing participation of European companies in the global economy. While maintaining the focus of their R&D investment in the EU, they reap opportunities for growth in emerging economies. Two out of three of the responding EU-based companies consider their home country the most attractive location for R&D. The United States, Germany, China and India are the most attractive locations mentioned outside the home country. Knowledge-sharing and collaboration (with universities and public research organisations), proximity (to other company sites and technology poles & incubators) and R&D personnel in the labour market (quality, quantity and labour costs) are the criteria that make countries attractive for R&D activity. Quality and quantity of R&D personnel in the labour market clearly rank ahead of labour costs, which are seen as a neutral factor. In a separate comparison of attractiveness factors among R&D sites within the EU, quality of R&D personnel, knowledge-sharing opportunities with universities and public organisations and proximity to other company sites are by far the most frequently stated in the top three. Comparing R&D attractiveness factors within the EU with those for the United States for 33 actual cases, the respondents point to proximity factors, knowledge-sharing opportunities and quality and quantity of R&D personnel as the leading factors for both world regions. Comparing R&D attractiveness factors within the EU with those for China and India, the 11 respondents reveal significant differences between the two world areas. Concerning EU initiatives for structural reforms to boost industrial R&D activity, the highest potential was deemed for making it lighter, simpler and less costly to comply with EU and national laws. This is followed by the improvement of framework conditions and reducing tax complexity. Show less
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PDF The 2014 Survey on R&D Investment Business Trends
This report contains the main findings of the ninth European Commission survey on industrial research and development (R&D) investment trends.… Show more It analyses the responses of 186 mainly very large enterprises from a subsample of 1 000 EU-based companies in the 2013 EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard. These 186 companies invested almost € 60 billion in R&D from their own resources, corresponding to 36 % of the total R&D investment by the 1 000 EU Scoreboard companies. The main findings are as follows: The main conclusion is that the responding companies expect R&D investment to increase by on average 4.2 % per year during 2014–16. This is about 50 % higher than the increase anticipated in the previous survey (2.6 %) and mainly reflects the shift in expectations in the automobiles and parts sector, which returns to the level of previous years (4.6 %) after last year's reported stagnation (–0.4 %). Activities related to Key Enabling Technologies (KETs) are highly diverse and often concentrated among few companies, mainly from high and medium R&D-intensity sectors. The 166 companies which provided information make one-fifth of their R&D outside the EU. The largest share of R&D investment made outside the EU is in the United States and Canada (8.4 %), followed by China (4.3 %), the rest of the world (3.6 %), India (1.9 %), other European countries (1.6 %) and Japan (1.2 %). The responding companies' expectations for R&D investment for the next three years show the ongoing participation of European companies in the global economy. While maintaining the focus of their R&D investment in the EU, they reap opportunities for growth in emerging economies. Two out of three of the responding EU-based companies consider their home country the most attractive location for R&D. The United States, Germany, China and India are the most attractive locations mentioned outside the home country. Human resources, knowledge-sharing and proximity to other company sites are the criteria that make countries attractive for R&D activity. For the countries where companies have the greatest R&D activity, the criteria most influencing attractiveness were said to be R&D personnel in the labour market (quality, quantity and labour costs), knowledge-sharing and collaboration opportunities (with universities and public research organisations) and proximity (to other company sites, technology poles and incubators, and suppliers). In a separate comparison of attractiveness factors among R&D sites within the EU, quality of R&D personnel and knowledge-sharing opportunities with universities and public organisations are by far the most frequently stated in the top three. Comparing R&D attractiveness factors within the EU with those for the United States, the 38 respondents point to knowledge-sharing opportunities and quality and quantity of R&D personnel as the leading factors for both world regions. Comparing R&D attractiveness factors within the EU with those for China and India, the 13 respondents reveal significant differences between the two world areas. R&D within the company is the most important component of innovation, followed by market research, product demonstration and training to support innovation activities. Show less
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PDF The 2013 Survey on R&D Investment Business Trends
This report presents the findings of the eigth survey on trends in industrial R&D investment. It analyses the 172 responses… Show more of mainly large firms from a subsample of 1000 EU-based companies in the 2012 EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard. These 172 companies are responsible for R&D investment worth € 62 billion, constituting around 41% of the total R&D investment by the 1000 EU Scoreboard companies. The main findings are as follows: The main conclusion is that, between 2013-15, the responding companies expect to increase their R&D investments by 2.6 % on average per year. Due to decreased expectations in the automobiles & parts sector, this is a third lower than in the previous survey. For some sectors, the expected R&D investment changes have increased compared to our previous surveys: electronic & electrical equipment (9 % p.a. over the next three years), general industrials (7 %), construction & materials (7 %), pharmaceuticals & biotechnology (4 %), and technology hardware & equipment (4 %). The responding companies carry out a quarter of their R&D outside the EU. Their expectations for R&D investment for the next three years show continued participation of European companies in the global economy, in particular growth opportunities in emerging economies, while maintaining an R&D focus in the EU. Two thirds of the European companies in the sample chose their home country as the most attractive location for R&D, and identified the US, Germany, China and India as the most attractive locations outside their home country. Knowledge-sharing, human resources, proximity to other company sites and market demand make countries attractive for R&D activities. Comparing the attractiveness for R&D activities of the surveyed companies among eight EU countries, quality of R&D personnel and knowledge-sharing opportunities with universities and public organisations are most frequently stated among the top three. Comparing the attractiveness of the EU to the US, geographic proximity is leading before knowledge sharing opportunities and R&D personnel. Comparing the attractiveness of the EU to the one of China and India, for the EU geographic proximity to other company sites and technology poles & incubators is a factor for attractiveness. For China and India proximity to suppliers is making these countries attractive. Show less