The economics of EU industrial R&I revealed

Abstract

Since its introduction in 2004, the EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard (the Scoreboard) has annually compared companies, sectors and geographical areas to provide details of the situation of EU firms in the global R&D setting. The 2022 edition follows the New European Innovation Agenda, which was released in July 2022, a few months before the Scoreboard. Five key foci for the Agenda, which is focused on `Deep Tech Innovations´, are: Funding scale-ups; enabling innovation through experimentation spaces and public procurement; accelerating and strengthening innovation in European Innovation ecosystems across the EU and addressing the innovation divide; fostering, attracting and retaining talents; and improving policy making tools. Essentially, the Agenda is seeking to advance innovation, while the Scoreboard measures it, enabling progress to be monitored. Details on 2,500 companies feature in the Scoreboard, 361 of which are headquartered in the EU, accounting for 17.6 per cent of the total R&D investment. In 2021, they invested an impressive €192.8 billion in R&D, overcoming the challenges presented by the pandemic. .`I am pleased to see the rebound of EU companies´ investment in research and development of 8.9 per cent after a drop last year of 2.2 per cent due to the COVID-19 pandemic,´ commented Mariya Gabriel, Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, in the Scoreboard's foreword. Four key sectors account for 77.8 per cent of total Scoreboard R&D: ICT producers, health industries, ICT services and automotive. EU Scoreboard companies were found to be the global leader in automotive R&D.