UK Research and Development: Reports and statistics
The UK R&D Scoreboard
The UK Government's annual R&D
Scoreboard, which is endorsed
by the R&D Society, reports on the patterns and trends of the 850 largest corporate spenders of R&D in the UK and the 1,400 companies in the world most active in R&D, based on R&D expenditure reported in company accounts. Note that as company accounts do not distinguish between expenditure in the UK and outside the UK, the figures reported by the Scoreboard do not either.
The latest scoreboard, the 2008 DIUS R&D Scoreboard, published 26 January 2009 is based on companies' reported performance up to June 2008 - before the current recession. The Scoreboard reports that the 850 top-spending UK firms spent £21.6 billion on R&D - a rise of 6.4 per cent on the previous scoreboard. The 1,400 companies in the world that spent the most on R&D increased their expenditure by 9.4% to £274 billion. 79% of this expenditure was by companies based in the USA, Japan, Germany, France and the UK.
The top 88 UK companies, who also rank in the top 1,400 global investors of R&D, increased their R&D investment by 10.3% - a faster rate than the rest of the top 1,400 companies. The remaining UK companies outside the top 88 grew their R&D by just 1.2% - a fall in real terms.
The biggest UK sector by spend remains pharmaceuticals and biotechnology (37%), with aerospace and defence, software, automobiles and parts, and fixed line telecommunications the next biggest, each with 6% share. Globally, the five biggest sectors were pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, technology hardware, automobiles and parts, software, and electronics.
The UK sectors that increased their R&D expenditure the most were oil and gas, banking, pharmaceuticals and fixed line telecommunications.
In the UK 850, 338 companies have sales of less than £50M, spending an average of 29% of their sales on R&D. This is significantly more than the larger UK firms, reflecting the tendency for smaller firms to be in R&D intensive sectors, with larger firms with larger absolute values of R&D spend being in less-intensive sectors. Listed companies (ie those with shareholders) increased their R&D by 9.8% compared with a 2.7% reduction for unlisted companies.
The Government also publishes 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.
National Statistics: Business Enterprise Research and Development (BERD)
National Statistics publish an annual survey of Business Enterprise Research and Development (BERD), which reports on expenditure on R&D performed in the UK within business enterprises. It differs from the Scoreboard by excluding R&D paid for by UK companies but carried out outside of the UK, and is based on a survey of 4,000 businesses.
The 2006 figures, published January 2008, reports that total R&D expenditure increased by
7 per cent to £14.3 billion; Civil R&D expenditure increased by
12 per cent to £12.4 billion and Defence R&D expenditure decreased
by 14 per cent to £1.9 billion. It shows that product groups with significant R&D expenditure include pharmaceuticals, aerospace, and computer and related activities.
Funding of R&D from businesses’ own funds was £8.7 billion in 2006 (61 per
cent of the total). Funding of R&D in UK businesses from abroad was £3.3
billion in 2006 (23 per cent of the total). Funding of R&D in UK businesses by
the UK Government was £1.1 billion in 2006, 8 per cent of the total and
predominately in defence.
The number of staff employed on R&D increased by 4,000, or 3 per cent,
between 2005 and 2006. Scientists and engineers remained constant at
94,000, and accounted for 63 per cent of all the staff employed on R&D in
2006. The level of technicians increased by 3,000 while administrative staff
increased by 2,000, between 2005 and 2006.
In Scotland: The Science and Innovation Strategy for Scotland
The The Science and Innovation Strategy for Scotland notes that in 2003, Scotland's businesses on average invested in R&D at around half the rate as in the UK as a whole; at 40% of the OECD average; and at 30% of the target in the European Union for 2010. Over the last 6 years there has been some improvement in our figures, but clearly much remains to be done. Our investment data are also particularly volatile because much investment is concentrated in a small number of firms in a small number of sectors, many of them foreign-owned. Losing one or two of these firms could seriously reduce the Scottish figures but, conversely, attracting one or two major firms willing to spend substantial amounts on R&D could improve the figures dramatically.
The EU Industrial R&D Scoreboard and the EU Innovation Scoreboard
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 EU Innovation Scoreboard, released January 2009, compared the 27 EU countries' performance on innovation on 29 individual indicators of innovation, entrepreneurship and knowledge creation and intellectual property. The Scoreboard reports that the UK is one of six "Innovation leaders", grouped with Switzerland, Sweden, Finland, Germany and Denmark , with scores well above that of the EU27 and all other countries.
It notes that the UK's innovation performance is above the EU27 average but the rate of improvement is below that of the EU27. Relative strengths, compared to the country’s average performance, are in Human resources, Finance and support, Firm investments and Linkages & entrepreneurship and relative weaknesses are in Throughputs, Innovators and Economic effects. The reeport notes that contributors to the UK's position include "Finance and support", especially strong growth in Venture Capital and broadband access by firms. It also notes that "Performance in Firm investments, Linkages & entrepreneurship, Innovators and Economic effects has worsened, in particular due to a decrease in Knowledge-intensive services exports (-4.7%), New-to-market sales (-12.7%) and New-to-firm sales (-10.7%)."
The OECD Scoreboard
The OECD Science, Technology
and Industry (STI) Scoreboard 2007, released 25 October 2007, compares
countries' performance in the areas of science, technology, globalisation
and industry. Online access to the full scoreboard is provided free and an eight page Highlights document is also provided.
The 30 OECD member countries, and several other countries,
are included in the analysis. The five-page
UK Country note accompanying the Scoreboard (pdf, free) notes that the
UK was the sixth-largest global spender on R&D in 2003, spending almost
34 billion USD, behind the United States, Japan, China, Germany, and France.
In terms of R&D intensity, the UK's 1.9% of GDP in 2003 is below that of
key competitors such as Japan (3.2%), Germany and the United States (2.6%),
France (2.2%), and the EU-15 average (2.0%). The report noted that the UK
"plays an important role in international co-operation in patenting",
with UK residents re the EU's main foreign owners of domestic inventions
from Australia, India, Ireland, South Africa and New Zealand.
The UK's strengths in science and engineering were noted - the number of
papers published per capita is very high, a higher proportion of science
and engineering degrees are awarded in the UK than the OECD average, and
particularily the USA. Foreign affiliates account for 31.5% of manufacturing
R&D in the United Kingdom, which is substantially above Japan (only 3.8%),
the United States (18%), France (22%) and Germany (25.6%), but behind Canada
(37.9%). Knowledge-intensive services, such as telecommunications, finance,
insurance and business services, now account for almost 23% of UK value
added, which is the fourth highest share in the OECD, with only Switzerland,
Luxembourg and the United States having a larger share. High-technology
industries, such as pharmaceuticals, aircraft, ICT equipment and precision
instruments, account for almost 35% of UK manufacturing exports.
The 2005 OECDScience, Technology and Industry Scoreboard reported that the United
Kingdom accounted for just over 4% of worldwide value added in manufacturing
in 2002, making it the sixth-largest manufacturing nation in the world.
China accounted for about 8%, making it the third-largest manufacturing
economy in the world, behind Japan and the United States, but ahead of Germany
and France.