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EU looks to match US investment in R&D
Thursday, September 12 2002
by Ciaran Buckley


The European Commission has announced a strategy to raise research and
development spending to 3 percent of GDP, up from the current EU average of 1.9
percent.



"Higher investment in science and technology is key for Europe's future," said
EU Research Commissioner Philippe Busquin in a statement. "In the current
economic downturn, we need even more R&D investment to seed innovations that will
bring about growth and employment tomorrow." 



Busquin pointed out that the US spent EUR288 billion on research and development
in 2000, in contrast to the EUR164 billion that was spent in the EU. The
Commissioner also said he thought the funding gap was widening.



The Commission plans focus upon providing training for researchers, strengthen
links between the public and private research sectors, implement appropriate
intellectual property rights and create a "culture of entrepreneurship" in
order to attract business investment in R&D.  





Finland and Sweden were the only countries where R&D spending as a percentage of
GDP exceeds the requirements, with percentages of 3.7 and 3.8 percent
respectively. R&D expenditure as a percentage of GDP exceeds 2 percent in
Denmark, Germany, France and the Netherlands. Ireland ranked eighth on the list
of EU nations, but with R&D expenditure at only 1.2 percent of GDP, the Republic
is falling woefully short of the EU's new targets.   





The Commission also seeks to raise the level of private R&D funding to 66 percent
of total R&D funding, from its current average level of 55 percent. The
two-thirds figure has already been attained by the USA and Japan. 



Belgium, Germany, Finland and Sweden were the only countries where private R&D
investment is greater than the 66 percent mark, and Ireland is the only other
country where private R&D exceeds 60 percent of total R&D spending, the report
said. 



 

The survey comes just over a week after the Irish government announced new
funding of over EUR30 million to 13 research projects in the bio-tech and ICT
sectors. Six of the awards, totalling over EUR17 million, were awarded to
researchers investigating ICT. The Science Foundation Ireland, which is
responsible for administering the EUR635 million Technology Foresight Fund, is
currently funding research projects in Ireland to a total of almost EUR100
million. 



But the EU's new drive for increased research and development spend among member
nations also follows a new report from IBEC subdivision ICT Ireland, which warned
that Ireland could be at risk of falling behind competitor nations, if high-tech
R&D is not supported.