Press Release: European Commission study shows 5% leap in European industrial R&D spending

The 2006 EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard shows that the top 1000 EU companies increased their R&D by an average of 5.3 % in 2005. This figure is in line with the results of a Commission survey released earlier this year. The top 1000 non-EU companies raised their R&D investment by 7.7%, showing a world-wide boost in R&D spending. The EU maintains a high profile, with 18 of the top 50 R&D spenders and 5 of the 10 word-wide companies with the fastest R&D growth. These figures emerge from the analysis of the top 1000 EU and 1000 non-EU companies investing in R&D. The full report, including detailed sector-by-sector analysis will be available later this year.