Record growth for UK R&D

The number of very R&D intensive, mid-sized UK companies has increased by more than 75% over the past four years, plus there are 100 more UK companies spending over £300,000 on R&D than last year according to the

annual ‘

’ published yesterday.

The DTI says the R&D Scoreboard is the world’s only comprehensive international league table of R&D active companies and this year was the most detailed to date.

The Scoreboard revealed the business climate for the world’s top 1000 companies has improved over the last year with overall increases in sales growth, profitability and R&D.

Large foreign-owned companies are increasingly recognising the UK as a supportive base for R&D. Twelve of the top 17 foreign-owned UK companies analysed have much larger R&D intensity than their parent companies, investing a high proportion of their global R&D effort in the UK.

The UK software industry stands out as a leading sector with 117 of the UK’s top 750 R&D companies and a contribution of 5.2% of total R&D investment. The pharmaceutical sector also increased its levels of R&D by 4% over the past 12 months.