EU Scoreboard Reveals Need for Industrial R&D Champs

The need for more industrial R&D companies in Europe in the emerging knowledge-intensive industries to compete with major trading partners in the global knowledge-based economy is discussed. This was highlighted in the 2004 EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard. The Scoreboard also highlighted the relative absence of mid-sized companies in the EU-500 as compared to the non-EU-500 companies. The Scoreboard data suggest that, although the profitability of both EU and non-EU firms has been recovering from the recession of 2001-2002, non-EU companies have been increasing their R&D investment and sales faster than EU companies.