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The global leaders in R&D

The global leaders in R&D

As in the previous Scoreboard, there were major changes in the Top 25 global companies by R&D expenditure. Toyota invested the most of any company, moving from fourth place to first. The global list continues to be dominated by firms from the automobiles and parts and pharmaceuticals and biotechnology sectors.

The only two UK firms that feature in the top 25 largest global investors in R&D saw falls in their rankings since the 2008 Scoreboard. AstraZeneca fell from 19th to 24th, while GlaxoSmithKline fell from 13th to 21st position. Despite continued growth in its R&D spending, GlaxoSmithKline continued the slide that began in 2007.


Table 2: Top 25 Global companies by R&D expenditure

Endorsers of the R&D Scoreboard

  • www.cia.org.uk
  • www.quotedcompaniesalliance.co.uk
  • www.raeng.org.uk
  • www.engineeringuk.com
  • www.intellectuk.org
  • www.rdsoc.org
  • www.cbi.org.uk
  • www.abi.org.uk
  • www.eef.org.uk
  • www.britishchambers.org.uk
  • www.iod.com
  • www.royalsoc.ac.uk
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  • Ministerial foreword

  • Summary

  • About the 2009 R&D Scoreboard

  • The pattern of R&D - an overview

    • Introduction

    • The scale of R&D

    • The sectoral distribution of R&D

    • The concentration of R&D

    • The UK's biggest investors in R&D

    • The global leaders in R&D

  • Key sectoral trends in R&D - a comparison of UK and global performance

    • Introduction

    • Summary

    • The scale of R&D expenditure by sector

    • Performance: R&D, sales and operating profits

    • R&D and Value added among UK investors

  • Sector Summaries

    • Aerospace & Defence

    • Automobiles & Parts

    • Banks

    • Fixed Line & Mobile Telecommunications

    • Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology

    • Software & Computer Services

  • The pattern of R&D across different categories of firm in the UK

    • Introduction

    • Summary

    • Differences in R&D between firms by value of sales

    • Differences in R&D between different types of ownership

    • R&D intensity of firms

    • The biggest changes in the UK

  • Appendix A - Summary for UK1000

  • Appendix B - Summary for G1000

  • Downloads

  • Commentary Archive

    • Summary

    • 2007 - Mike Carr

    • 2006 - Sir David McMurtry

    • 2006 - Douglas Caster

    • 2005 - Sir Christopher O'Donnell

    • 2005 - Richard Longdon

    • 2004 - Sir Peter Williams

    • 2004 - Gordon Page CBE

    • 2003 - Sir Tom McKillop

    • 2003 - Brian Harding

    • 2002 - Sir David McMurtry

    • 2002 - Brian Harding

    • 2001 - Sir William Castell

    • 2001 - Andy Crossley

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