Could do better

A European company, Daimler-Chrysler, invests more in research and development than any company in the world.

This is one of the findings of the Second EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard, compiled and presented by the European Commission.

The Scoreboard, an analysis of industrial R&D investment trends based on corporate figures, shows that R&D investment among the top 700 EU companies grew slightly in the year to 1 August 2005 contrasting with the previous year, when spending went down.

Nonetheless, a wide investment gap remains in comparison with the top 700 companies outside the EU.

Based on corporate information available up to 1 August of this year, the Scoreboard shows a turnaround in the R&D investment growth rate for EU companies, from a decline last year of 2% to an increase this year of 0.7%.

It also shows that top EU companies are as ready to invest in R&D as their competitors from outside the EU: nine of the top 25 worldwide investors are based in the EU, and 45% of the top 700 companies in the EU increased their R&D investment by more than 5% this year.

But the modest growth rate by EU companies has to be seen against an annual growth in R&D investment of about 7% by non-EU companies. On average, EU companies invest a smaller proportion of their sales in R&D.

More details can be found at: http://eu-iriscoreboard.jrc.es/scoreboard_2005.htm