Europe’s industry increased investment in research and development by 9.8 per cent in 2023, surpassing corporate R&D investment growth in the US (+5.9pct) and China (+9.6pct)for the first time since 2013.
According to the new edition of the EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard, the EU was second globally in R&D private investment (18.7%), trailing the US (42.3%), but ahead of China (17.1%), Japan (8.3%) and countries in the rest of the world (13.6%).
Despite slowing global R&D growth (+7.8% vs. +12.6% in 2022), the top 2000 companies invested a record €1257.7 billion on R&D in 2023. The top 50, among them 11 EU companies, contributed 40.1% of investments, revealing a strong concentration of R&D in the biggest players.
“Research and innovation investments will determine tomorrow’s economy, industry and competitiveness,” said the EU’s Startups and Research Commissioner Ekaterina Zaharieva: “We count on the contribution of European corporate leaders to help close our innovation gap with other world regions. Solid innovation ecosystems will boost our start-ups and SMEs, and will contribute to our shared prosperity, building on our robust industrial base.”
Spread across 19 Member States, the top 800 companies based in the EU invested €247.7 billion in R&D in 2023, growing by 8.7% from the previous year. The automotive sector leads the EU-800 list, accounting for 34.2% of EU corporate R&D investments, followed by the health sector (19.3%), ICT hardware (14%) and ICT software (7.8%).
Among the top EU-800 companies, there are 99 small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) with fewer than 250 employees. Most of them (74) are in the health sector and are based in Sweden, France, Denmark, and Germany. French SMEs lead in R&D investment (34% of the total), followed by Sweden (21.3%) and the Netherlands (16.6%.
The Scoreboard, which is published annually, explains the innovation gaps with main competitors by Europe’s industrial structure. It underlines the need for the EU to boost private R&I investments, develop key sectors, such as Information & Communication Technologies (ICT) and health, address disparities among Member States, and promote technology deployment and the creation and growth of EU-based players.
