The Research and Development Society

Thursday 22 November 2007, 6.30pm
The Royal Society, 7 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AG - map

Why does R&D expenditure matter? How should executives manage their R&D investment? Should companies increase their R&D spending for greater returns? Should executives (and their company's shareholders) view R&D as an expense or an investment? With the recent publication of the 2007 UK R&D Scoreboard and the 2007 EU Scoreboards, which benchmark companies and countries on their R&D spend, this event seeks to draw out the key lessons from the scoreboards' tables, to celebrate companies that are leaders in their field, and to help companies understand why R&D expenditure matters.

Following an introduction from Mike Tubbs on the latest evidence for the links between R&D and business performance, a panel of senior executives from leading R&D-intensive UK companies will give their insights, including:

• Richard Longdon, Chief Executive, AVEVA, on outsourcing of R&D, including outsourcing internationally
• Bill Stuart-Bruges, Development Director, Sondex, on how Sondex's multi-site and multi-national R&D contributed to its impressive growth
• Brent Vose, Vice President and Head of AstraZeneca's Oncology and Infection Therapy Area, will speak about AstraZeneca's experience of an R&D function comprising in-house capabilities as well as recent acquisitions.

Following the presentations, a panel and audience discussion will explore the how, where, when, and why of investing in R&D.

Doors open for registration and coffee at 6pm. The meeting starts at 6.30pm with a drinks reception at 8pm.

Speakers:

Dr Mike Tubbs is author of the DTI R&D Scoreboards 2000 to 2006, of all the Value Added Scoreboards 2002 to 2007 and of the first European Union R&D Scoreboard. He has spent 25 years in three multinationals in positions such as research director, executive board member of a £2bn group and head of a business excellence programme. He is currently managing director of Innovomantex Limited, the management consultancy and an advisor to the European Commission and has published recent articles on R&D Scoreboards, the links between R&D and business performance and on investment topics for Investors Chronicle and other titles.

Richard Longdon is Chief Executive Officer of AVEVA Group plc, a world-leader in engineering IT software to the plant, power and marine industries. AVEVA was founded and is still based in Cambridge, with twenty-seven offices in twenty-four countries around the world. Following a career in the defence industry, he joined AVEVA in 1984, and was appointed its group chief executive in December 1999.

Bill Stuart-Bruges is the Development Director for Sondex, a leading supplier of Measurement-While-Drilling and Wireline Logging equipment to oilfield service companies worldwide. Sondex's headquarters are in Hampshire, from where it manages its 450 employees in nine countries, with R&D bases in the UK and Canada, and both in-house and sub-contracted equipment manufacture. Bill has been associated with the Sondex business since 1991, and has previously held technical management positions in GEC, Ford, Halliburton and Jaguar. At Sondex he created the present research and development team and led a number of downhole instrument and system developments.

Brent Vose is Vice President and Head of the Oncology and Infection Therapy Area of AstraZeneca, one of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies. R&D Directions, a leading pharmaceutical trade publication, praised AstraZeneca for the way it continues to expand its R&D pipeline 'through collaborative efforts with speciality pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.'

Background information:

• The 2007 DIUS R&D Scoreboard reports on the patterns and trends of the 850 largest corporate spenders of R&D in the UK and the 1,250 companies in the world most active in R&D in 2006, based on R&D expenditure reported in company accounts. It reports that the 850 UK firms spent almost £21 billion on R&D - a rise of 9 per cent. The 75 biggest firms increased their R&D spend by 12 per cent, in part due to the UK world-leading status in pharmaceutical R&D. This growth is mainly due to increases in the pharmaceuticals, fixed line telecommunications, and aerospace and defence and banking. These 75 firms account for two-thirds of the £21 billion spend, with the remaining 775 firms increasing R&D spend by only 3.4% compared with last year. Figures for smaller firms show 95 more firms invested over £0.5m in R&D compared with last year, and invest more in R&D as a proportion of sales than their larger peers. Listed companies (ie those with shareholders) increased their R&D by 12.4% compared with a 0.9% increase for unlisted companies. The top UK sectors by R&D spend were pharmaceuticals, aerospace and defence, software, fixed line telecommunications, automobiles and banks. The sectors that saw the greatest increases in R&D expenditure were travel and leisure, fixed line telecommunications, mining, mobile telecommunications, household goods and banking.
• The 2007 EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard released in early October 2007, presents information on 2000 companies from around the world reporting major investments in R&D - 1000 based in the EU and 1000 based elsewhere in the world. EU-based companies increased their R&D by 7.4%, up from 2006's 5.3% figure - but still lower than those based outside the EU.
• The 2007 DTI Value Added Scoreboard lists the top 800 UK companies and the top 750 global companies by Value Added - the amount of wealth created by a company in a year. It gives R&D intensity for companies listed by value added.