R&D of E.U. Firms up by 8.1% in 2008. (November 17, 2009)

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics: "Although Australia's BERD/GDP ratio for 2007-08 remained below the OECD average of 1.59%, its growth from 2006-07 was greater than the OECD average growth. BERD in 2007/8 increased to $14.4 billion up from $12.5b in 2006/7 -- an increase of 15% in nominal terms and 9% in real terms (chain volume)."

ScienceInsider notes a new report that shows that European companies are far from leading in spending on research and development. According to the EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard, European Union companies' R&D grew by 8.1% in 2008, ahead of the United States (5.7% growth) and Japan (4.4%). However, the United States still spends more in the sectors that depend most on R&D (pharma, biotech, and information and communication technology), but Europe leads in the growing area alternative energy.

On the other hand the really big movers according to the report are China and India, 40% and 27.3% respectively.

Overall the following matters need to be considered.

Many of the big, private R&D spenders are multinationals. The report assigns all of their R&D to their home country, i.e. their head office.

Worldwide, corporate R&D spending grew by 6.9% in 2008, down from 9.0% the previous year and European Commissioner for research Janez Potočnik warned yesterday at a press conference in Brussels that the economic downturn suggests it will drop further in 2009 and 2010.

And the top spenders are:

Toyota, Microsoft, GM, Pfizer, and Johnson and Johnson and four from Europe, Volkswagen, Nokia, Roche, and Novartis.