Spending by the UK companies listed increased by 9.2 per cent in 2008 compared with 2007. The increase was largely by companies in the pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, aerospace and defence, software and computer services and banking sectors.
Eighty one percent of UK R&D was conducted by just one hundred of the 1,000 UK companies surveyed, and is dominated by the pharmaceuticals and biotechnology sector.
Globally, the 1,000 top spenders R&D invested £396 billion in 2008, an increase of 7 per cent on the previous year. There are 46 UK companies in this group and they increased their R&D spend at a rate of 11.1 per cent.
Eighty per cent of investment in R&D by the global 1,000 companies occurs in five countries, the US, Japan, Germany, France and the UK.
Global R&D intensity, which is a measure of R&D expenditure as a proportion of sales stood at 3.4 per cent. Among the UK’s 1,000 leading companies, R&D intensity stood at only 1.6 per cent and at 1.5 per cent for the 46 UK companies listed in the global top 1000.
Ranked by their value-added contribution, the top 50 UK R&D companies contributed some £385 billion to the broader economies in which they operate. Three fifths of this amount derived from just ten companies. With the exception of the banks, all increased their value-added contributions compared with the previous year.
The current data highlights spending on R&D in 2008, before the worst of the global economic downturn, but the fact that the table has been compiled for 19 years means it remains an important data source for tracking commercial investment over time.
The Scoreboard is available at: http://www.bis.gov.uk/randscoreboard
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