UK tech firms miss top spots in R&D spend

Private sector R&D in Europe remains at one per cent of Gross Domestic Product

A new study carried out by the European Union has revealed that UK technology firms are increasing their investment in research and development, but that this still falls far below the levels of some of the biggest global players.

The European Commission's Industrial R&D Investment Scorecard 2008 was published today and boasts three European companies in its top 10: Nokia, Volkswagen and Daimler.

No UK IT firm makes the top 10, but telecoms giant BT took the number three slot having spent €1.7bn.

In computer services, IBM invests the most money in research and development, spending some €3.9bn. Europe's closest runner is Fujitsu Services, which spends €145m.

The UK's highest investor in the IT services field is Logica, with a €29.5m R &D spend. Northgate Information Solutions and Anite were also in the European top 10 of software firms.

No surprise that, in the internet arena, Google spends the most worldwide, pushing some €1.4bn into its research coffers. Europe's highest spender in this area is Lycos from the Netherlands, which has thrown €21m into research.

Another big name takes first place for software investment. Microsoft spends a whopping €5.5bn, while Germany's SAP doles out some €1.4bn. In the UK software market, Symbian, Sage, Misys and Amdocs all scored well for their spending, but were dwarfed by giants such as Microsoft and SAP.

In hardware Japan takes the lead with Hitachi spending €2.5bn, while France's Bull tops the European league with a much smaller R&D spend of €45m.

Chip giant Intel predictably leads its group, clocking up a massive €3.9bn in investment, while, as in software, Germany takes the European crown with an investment of €1.1bn from Infineon.

Worldwide the amount of growth in research and development has fallen, the EU said, from 10 per cent last year to nine per cent this year. Overall, however, investment in Europe alone rose.

"We are pleased that R&D investment growth in EU companies has increased against the background of a slight fall in the growth rate worldwide," said European science and research commissioner Janez Potočnik.

"However, private sector R&D in Europe remains at one per cent of Gross Domestic Product, amidst signs that EU companies are making an increasing share of their R&D investments outside Europe."