EU R&D SCOREBOARD: The 2012 EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard

The 2012 "EU Industrial R&D Scoreboard" (the Scoreboard) contains economic and financial data of the world's top 1500 companies ranked by their investments in research and development (R&D). The sample consists of 405 companies based in the EU and 1095 companies based elsewhere. The Scoreboard data are drawn from the latest available company accounts, i.e. fiscal year 2011 for most companies. The main indicators, namely R&D investment, net sales, capital expenditures, operating profits and number of employees are collected following the same methodologies, definitions and assumptions applied in previous years. This ensures comparability so that the companies' economic and financial data can be analysed over a longer period of time. In last year's Scoreboard, companies showed significant signs of recovery after the negative results of previous years due to the global economic and financial crisis that began in 2008. This edition shows that companies continued to increase their R&D investments at a significant pace in 2011. This is especially important considering that in this period companies continued to face adverse market conditions and uncertainties due to the persistent effects of the crisis, in particular regarding the access to financing and reduction of demand in many countries. On the other hand, as shown throughout this report, companies' patterns of investment and economic results greatly differ by type of company, industry and country.