IRMA

Industrial Research Monitoring and Analysis

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

The Work Programme emphasises the need to ensure the continuation of the industrial research and innovation monitoring activities undertaken by the Commission. This proposal focuses on the collection of data and information on private companies and their use for gaining more insight in the reasons why firms are investing in research. It aims to provide policymakers with a better understanding of the returns to R&D and of what measures are needed to remove the barriers to a wider use of R&D. The Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard has become a standard reference for business and policymakers and will continue to be produced as part of this proposal. It will be accompanied by a regular survey of companies on R&D developments. A concise digest of the literature and the results of specific studies will appear annually in the Economic and Policy Analysis Report. The 2nd European Conference on Corporate R&D, to be held in 2009, will be an opportunity for policymakers and researchers to identify avenues for further investigation and to discuss the policy implications.

Introduzione (Teaser)

The private sector plays a vital role in Europe's innovation landscape. However, understanding what contribution industrial research and development (R&D) can make to the EU's innovative potential requires reliable, timely and accurate information.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

Research is a vital ingredient of Europe's innovation potential. In fact, R&D carried out by the private sector is a major contributor to the EU's ability to innovate its way towards more growth and jobs.

Boosting the performance of private sector R&D necessitates a deep understanding of the industrial research landscape, its strengths, weaknesses, needs and investment gaps. Building this understanding requires reliable and timely statistics.

The EU-funded 'Industrial research monitoring and analysis' (IRMA) project aimed to build just such an understanding. The project was run by the Institute for Prospective Technology Studies (IPTS) at the EU's Joint Research Centre (JRC).

IRMA sought to provide policymakers, entrepreneurs and academics with robust empirical evidence and analysis of the contribution of private sector R&D to economic growth and employment.

It continued to produce the Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard, which has become a standard reference for business and policymakers. IRMA complemented this with a regular survey of companies on R&D developments.

A corporate-level dataset containing R&D and financial information on the world's top research investors has proven to be a unique tool. It enabled IRMA to monitor and analyse the competitiveness of the research activities of firms based in Europe versus their main rivals.

Scoreboard trends over the past decade show that firms in the United States dominate in high R&D-intensive sectors and EU companies in medium-high ones. The fact that EU firms tend to invest in sectors that are less research-intensive is partly responsible for the transatlantic private R&D investment gap.

This finding is relevant to policymakers because, while under-investment can be addressed in the relatively short term, sectoral composition can only be changed in the long run.

Econometric analysis using the scoreboard revealed that productivity and R&D investment are closely related. Meanwhile, age analysis shows the transatlantic research gap comes mostly from a relatively small number of young and innovative companies in sectors with high R&D intensity.

Such deep statistical insights promise to help advance the understanding of the drivers of business R&D investment in Europe.