US Companies Again Dominate Global R&D Spending
Global spending on Research and Development by the top 1250 global companies rose by 10% to £244 billion, according to the 2007 R&D Scoreboard released today by the UK Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills.
R & D spending continues to be dominated by companies registered in just five countries – the United States, Japan, Germany, France and the United Kingdom, – which together contributed 81% of R&D by the G1250, the report shows.
Firms from India and China have yet to establish themselves as significant players in the G1250, although other evidence suggests that both countries are increasingly important locations for R&D.
Globally, average R&D intensity remains unchanged at 3.5% of sales.
R&D investment in the global pharmaceuticals sector grew by 16% in the last year; it has replaced technology hardware (which grew by 13%) as the largest global R&D sector. Other rapidly growing sectors amongst the ten largest investors were the software and aerospace & defense sectors which both grew at more than 12%.
Analysis suggests that, overall, the 75 UK companies in the G1250 have increased their R&D expenditure more quickly than their global peers in the same sectors, largely due to the concentration of UK firms in fast growing sectors such as pharmaceuticals. In many sectors, however, UK firms increased their R&D more slowly than their global peers.
The 2007 R&D Scoreboard is available from the Department’s Website.
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