European firms plan R&D spending increase
News Article - 25 August 2006
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European firms are anticipating a significant increase in the level of research and development (R&D) spending over the next three years, according to a report.
A new survey from the European Commission found that the continent's companies expect their global investments in R&D to see a five per cent rise each year over the next three years.
More than 400 companies working across ten major industrial sectors were questioned as past of the research, which revealed a marked increase in R&D spending expectations when compared against the results from 2005's survey.
Last year's study predicted growth of just 0.7 per cent.
"If we are to reach our objective of investing three per cent of GDP in research and development, we need increased investment by the private sector," said Janez Potocnik, European Commissioner for Science and Research.
"For this reason the results of this survey are encouraging. We need to maintain and reinforce our efforts at European and national level to make Europe an attractive place for companies to carry out their research. The Commission will be coming forward with some more ideas in this area in autumn 2006."
Nationalism was also found to be quite strong in terms of R&D spending, with most companies preferring to locate R&D activities in their home-country.
The top locations for R&D activity in Europe continue to be Germany, the United Kingdom and France.
The 449 responding companies are collectively responsible for a total global R&D investment of almost €30 billion.
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