ThemenRubriken
MiniRubriken
Head of Unit - Corporate Services M/F (Grade AD 10)
Permanent representative in Madrid
Principal, Border Management Staff College (P5)
Stagiaire / Trainee - for the leading EU policy media
Junior Scientific and Technical Advisor
Assistant Communications & Public Affairs Departments
Head of Section, responsible for high-performance computing and data handling
Stellenangebot registrierenAus Statistiken geht hervor, dass Unternehmensinvestitionen in die Forschung und Entwicklung in der EU das dritte Jahr in Folge zugenommen haben und damit schneller angestiegen sind, als die Investitionen im privaten Sektor in den Vereinigten Staaten.
The EU 2008 Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard
, published on 15 October, shows that the rate of EU business R&D investment growth increased by 8.8%, up from last year's figure of 7.4%. At the same time, the rate of investment growth for US companies dropped sharply from 13.3% to 8.6%.
"EU companies are almost closing the gap in R&D growth rates compared to all non-EU companies," the Commission said in a statement.
"In particular, companies in the energy field are rapidly increasing their R&D investments, responding to the need to make more efficient use of limited resources," said Research Commissioner Janez Potočnik.
However, the commissioner deplored that the total share of the bloc's corporate R&D "remains at 1% of GDP [nearly 2% in the US], amidst signs that EU companies are making an increasing share of their R&D investments outside Europe". According to him, increased efforts are needed to build a single European research market to attract more business R&D and reach the Lisbon objectives.
Indeed, the EU is aiming to spend 3% of its GDP on research and development activities, with 2% coming from the private sector.
The scoreboard comprises the world's top 1,000 EU based
R&D investors and the top 1,000 non-EU based
companies. The US-based companies Microsoft, General Motors and Pfizer are the world's top three investors.
In the EU-only ranking, Nokia, Volkswagen and Daimler occupy the top positions. They also made the world top-ten, in fifth, ninth and tenth position respectively.
Regarding sectoral trends in business investment, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, technology hardware and equipment, and automobiles and parts account for more than half of the world's R&D.
Meanwhile, the oil and gas production sector showed the highest one-year growth rate, at 22.9%.