The global leaders in R&D

There were significant changes in the 25 leading global investors in R&D in 2007. Microsoft invested the most of any company having been fourth in the list in the previous year

The biggest climber in the Top 25 was Nokia, which increased investment in R&D by 42% over the last year. The firm which dropped the most places in the Top 25 was Siemens, which fell from eighth place to twenty-second. Other significant rises were General Motors (to second), Roche (to eighth) and Volkswagen (to ninth).

The global list is dominated by firms from the automobiles and parts and pharmaceuticals and biotechnology sectors.

Compared with last year’s Scoreboard, there is now one more UK firm in the 25 largest global investors in R&D: AstraZeneca joined GlaxoSmithKline amongst the largest investors in R&D in 2007 having leaped to nineteenth position in this year’s Scoreboard (see Table 2). GlaxoSmithKline, on the other hand, has fallen seven places from seventh position to thirteenth over the course of the year.

Table 2: Top 25 global companies by R&D expenditure (2007)

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