The annual R&D Scoreboard, produced for the first time by the new Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills, has just been published, with endorsement from the Research and Development Society.
It reports on the patterns and trends of the 850 largest corporate spenders of R&D in the UK and the 1,250 companies in the world most active in R&D in 2006, based on R&D expenditure reported in company accounts. It reports that the 850 UK firms spent almost £21 billion on R&D - a rise of 9 per cent. The 75 biggest firms increased their R&D spend by 12 per cent, in part due to the UK world-leading status in pharmaceutical R&D. This growth is mainly due to increases in the pharmaceuticals, fixed line telecommunications, and aerospace and defence and banking. These 75 firms account for two-thirds of the £21 billion spend, with the remaining 775 firms increasing R&D spend by only 3.4% compared with last year.
Figures for smaller firms show 95 more firms invested over £0.5m in R&D compared with last year, and invest more in R&D as a proportion of sales than their larger peers. Listed companies (ie those with shareholders) increased their R&D by 12.4% compared with a 0.9% increase for unlisted companies. The top UK sectors by R&D spend were pharmaceuticals, aerospace and defence, software, fixed line telecommunications, automobiles and banks. The sectors that saw the greatest increases in R&D expenditure were travel and leisure, fixed line telecommunications, mining, mobile telecommunications, household goods and banking.
Our event on 22 November 2007 will explore these issues and more. The Scoreboard is published for free on DIUS’s website.
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