The scale of R&D
The UK’s 1,000 largest corporate spenders on R&D (the “UK1000”) invested £26.6 billion in 2008, or 9.2% more than in the previous year. This growth was achieved despite increased uncertainties brought about by rapidly deteriorating global economic conditions. However, the economic slowdown had not fully materialised by the end of 2008, and future Scoreboards will reveal what impact the recession has had on investment in R&D.
The 1,000 companies in the world most active in R&D in 2008 (the “G1000”) invested £396 billion, an increase of 7% over the previous year. This spending was highly concentrated in firms based in five countries; 80% of the investment was undertaken by companies from the US, Japan, Germany, France and the UK, and 74% of the companies come from these countries (see Figure 2).
Figure 2: Distribution of R&D expenditure among G1000 by country (2008)
