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(BRUSSELS) – Companies’ investment in research and development grew for the ninth consecutive year in 2018, though below the global growth rate, driven by the auto, health and ICT sectors – according to an EU report.
In the face of an ever-increasing global technological race, the top 2500 industrial players worldwide increased their R&D investment by 8.9% last year. EU companies account for 17 of the top 50 of corporate R&D investors. The growth in investment by EU-based companies is, however, outpaced by their US and Chinese counterparts: the former increased their R&D investment last year by 10.3%, the latter by 26.7%.
These are some of the main findings of the 2019 Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard, published by the European Commission today. It provides an annual in-depth analysis of the most recent investment trends of the worlds leading industrial R&D players contributing to understanding the positioning of the EU companies in the global landscape.
Notwithstanding the increas, much more is needed in the global race for technological leadership in deep-tech and sustainability, says the Innovation Commissioner Mariya Gabriel. She said he Commission would launch a fully-fledged European Innovation Council to invest in high-risk companies creating new markets: “If we want Europe to drive the transition to a climate-neutral economy, we need to redouble our efforts.”
In the ranking of 2500 worldwide largest R&D investors, the US comes first with 769 companies (313 billion), followed by 551 EU based companies (208 billion) and China 507 companies (96 billion). The 551 EU based companies employed more than 19.4 million people, an increase of 3.9% over the previous year.
EU based automotive companies have contributed most to R&D growth in the EU and prepare for the future with a broad patent portfolio to reduce vehicle emissions (behind Japan) and for autonomous vehicles. On the other hand the EU has been overtaken in the ICT sector by Chinas large R&D investments, and the US strengthened its leadership through high R&D growth in ICT and health industries.
Global R&D was driven by the US ICT service sector (17.1%) followed by ICT producers (9.1%) and the health sector (9.3%). EU R&D growth sectors comprises automobiles (6.4%), ICT producers (5.5%) and health (3.8%). EU companies are competing with the US in aerospace and defence and in the chemicals sector where Japan takes the lead.
The Scoreboard includes a separate analysis of patents filed worldwide for 2012-2015. The 2500 Scoreboard companies hold 53% of all the green tech patents of 2012-2015. The biggest share of these patents (38% during 2012-2015) is in transport. The top 25 companies in green tech patenting include five EU based companies; while nine Japanese companies are overall the most active.
Finally, the report shows that growth in R&D investment of the 2500 top industrial players is accompanied by a raise in most financial indicators. Net sales (8.4%) and profits (9.1%) continued the positive trend of the previous year increasing at a similar rate to R&D investment. Net sales of the 551 companies based in the EU reached 6 trillion, an increase of 4.7% on the previous year.
