EU technology firms urged to spend more on R&D

Neelie Kroes wants the EU to catch up with other nations in ICT research and development spending

European Digital Agenda commissioner Neelie Kroes has called on IT firms and EU member states to double their investment in research and development (R& D) to better compete with competition from the US, Japan and South Korea.

Kroes cited research carried out between 2002 and 2007 by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre which found that, although the ICT sector has the highest R&D investment in the EU, it still lags behind other nations.

"To help achieve our goal of investing three per cent of GDP in R&D, Europe needs to double its public spending on ICT R&D by 2020, and create the best conditions for the private sector to do the same," she said.

The research found that total R&D business investment is two and a half times greater in the US (£71.4bn) than in the EU (£29bn), and that 50 per cent of R&D patents submitted by US inventors are from ICT technologies compared to 20 per cent in the EU.

Furthermore, EU governments fund a smaller share of R&D in relation to total public funding compared to the US. Just six per cent of funding for all R &D in the EU (£4.52bn) goes to the ICT sector, compared to nine per cent in the US.

Finland, Sweden and Spain have the highest levels of ICT public funding in relation to GDP, the report said.

However, the UK is one of the countries contributing most to total spend on R &D within the EU, making up almost half the entire spend in the EU alongside Germany and France.