The 2024 EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard

The 2024 edition of “The EU Industrial Research & Development (R&D) Investment Scoreboard” continues in the 21st year to monitor and analyse industrial R&D investment trends in the context of the EU’s 3% of GDP R&D investment policy target, which is a key performance indicator of the EU’s long-term competitiveness. As emphasised in the recent ‘Draghi’ report, it is crucial for the EU to substantially increase private R&D investments in order to tackle our historic productivity gaps with respect to main global competitors. The 2024 Scoreboard’s monitors the world's top 2 000 R&D investors, responsible for over three quarters of R&D performed by the business sector globally, based on the financial information in the firms’ latest published audited accounts. Chapter 2 analyses the main global trends and benchmarks the EU’s top R&D investing companies against global competitors. Chapter 3 provides details per sector, and chapter 4 deep-dives on a subsample of the EU’s top 800 R&D investing firms. Chapter 5 analyses the R&D productivity from a long-term perspective, and combines the sample with data on Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) to delve into corporate innovation strategies.