The European Commission published its 2014 EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard. The Scoreboard is based on a sample of 2500 companies, the world’s top investors in Research and Development (R&D) and equivalent to about 90% of the total expenditure on R&D by businesses worldwide. Top world R&D investors continued to increase their R&D investments by 4.9% in 2013, a figure well above their net sales growth (2.7%). The 633 EU companies among the top world R&D investors increased R&D investment by 2.6% while showing a decrease in sales (-1.9%) and operating profits (-6.6%).

For the second consecutive year, the EU-based carmaker Volkswagen leads the world R&D investment ranking, showing again a remarkable increase in R&D investment in 2013 (23%, up to €11.7bn). The other three companies in the top four positions are also the same as last year. Samsung Electronics from South Korea is second in the ranking and increases R&D by 25.4%, up to €10.2 bn. Microsoft and Intel from the US are in the 3rd and 4th places.

There are two new entries in the top ten in this Scoreboard 2014 edition: Google (9th) from the USA and Daimler (10th) from the EU. Two Swiss pharmaceutical companies, Novartis (5th) and Roche (6th), and Toyota (7th) from Japan and Johnson & Johnson (8th) from the USA complete the top ten.

Here are the top 50 investors –

The 2014 Scoreboard shows that the top two sectors in terms of R&D investment, Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology and Technology Hardware & Equipment, achieved a modest increase in R&D, of 2.4% and 3.3% respectively. The highest R&D growth was seen in the Construction & Materials sector (13.6%). The following three top sectors increased R&D well above the world average: Software & Computer Services (11.4%), Electronic & Electrical Equipment (9.0%) and Automobiles & Parts (7.1%).

Here are the leading sectors in investments: