Title page 1

Contents 3

Abstract 6

Foreword 7

Acknowledgements 8

Executive summary 9

1. Introduction 16

1.1. Economic context 16

1.2. US Policy Context 18

1.3. EU Policy Context 18

2. Global R&D investment in 2024 and dynamics 21

2.1. R&D investment across countries/regions in 2024 22

2.2. Top R&D investors - company level analysis 24

2.2.1. Top 50 companies ranked by R&D investment 26

2.2.2. Entry to and exit from the ranking 29

2.2.3. Technologies by the top contributors to R&D investment growth 32

2.3. Concentration of R&D investment in the Scoreboard 35

2.4. Development of R&D investment 2014-2024 41

2.5. Business key performance indicators 47

2.5.1. Net sales & R&D intensity 48

2.5.2. Operating profits and operating profitability 49

2.5.3. Capital expenditure (capex), capex intensity and R&D-to-capex 50

2.5.4. Employment and R&D per employee 52

2.5.5. Market capitalisation 53

2.6. Subsidiary structure of the Scoreboard firms 54

2.7. Key points 58

3. R&D investment by sector 61

3.1. Overview of sectors 61

3.2. Distribution of companies across sectors and regions 64

3.3. Growth rates across sectors and regions 66

3.4. The top 4 R&D-investing sectors in the longer term - 2014-2024 69

3.5. Sector KPI for the top 4 in the longer term - 2014-2024 72

3.6. R&D in the sectors outside the top 4 in the longer term-2014-2024 79

3.7. Sector KPIs outside the top 4 in the longer term-2014-2024 82

3.8. Key points 88

4. A closer look at the EU 90

4.1. Top 800 EU R&D investors-overview 90

4.2. EU 800 in an EIS perspective 93

4.3. Sectoral distribution and development in the EU 800 and the EIS groups 96

4.4. Business performance indicators for the EIS groups 102

4.5. The EU 800 across size classes and EIS groups 105

4.5.1. KPIs per size class 109

4.6. EU 800 country focus 111

4.7. Key points 115

5. Internationalisation of R&D - analysis of R&D investment flow data 117

5.1. The importance of R&D internationalisation in the EU 117

5.2. Data on international R&D flows 119

5.3. Overview of R&D investment flows 120

5.4. Top 10 countries for R&D inflows and outflows 122

R&D inflows 122

R&D outflows 123

Country balance of R&D inflows and outflows 124

5.5. Sectoral flows 128

5.6. Key points 130

6. Patenting trends in key green technologies 131

6.1. The EU within global trends 133

6.2. EU Member States 136

6.3. Scoreboard Companies 139

6.4. Key points 142

References 143

List of abbreviations and definitions 150

Annex 1. General information on the Scoreboard 157

Annex 2. Methodological notes 158

Annex 3. Global share of business enterprise sector R&D represented by the Scoreboard 164

Annex 4. Effects of country reclassification exercise 2024 166

Tables 155

Table 1. Countries: R&D investment (in EUR billion) and number of companies, 2024 22

Table 2. R&D investment and financial data of the top 5, top 10 and top 50 companies, 2024 27

Table 3. Top rankings by age group, 2024 28

Table 4. Top 10 contributors to absolute increase in R&D investment, 2024 vs 2023 28

Table 5. Top 10 contributors to absolute R&D investment decrease, 2024 vs 2023 29

Table 6. Top 50 - Regional shares and growth rates of R&D investment in the main sectors, 2024 30

Table 7. Top 500 - Entries and exits, number of companies and R&D investment across regions (in EUR million), 2024 31

Table 8. Regional R&D investment growth 2014-2024, nominal and inflation-adjusted, top 2,000 companies 43

Table 9. Business KPIs, top 2,000 companies, 2024 48

Table 10. R&D by ICB 3 sector classification, 2024 61

Table 11. Overview of number of companies and R&D investment per sector and region, 2024 63

Table 12. Distribution of R&D investment per sector and region in %, 2024 64

Table 13. Distribution of firms across sectors and regions, number (share per region in brackets), 2024 65

Table 14. Nominal and inflation-adjusted growth rates of R&D investment per sector in %, 2014-2024 66

Table 15. Nominal R&D investment growth rates by sector and region in %, top 2,000 (deflated in brackets), 2024 68

Table 16. Top 4 sectors - Share of companies and R&D per region, 2014 and 2024 70

Table 17. Top 4 sectors - R&D investment across regions, 2014 and 2024, in EUR million 71

Table 18. ICT software KPIs, 2014 and 2024, across regions 73

Table 19. ICT hardware KPIs, 2014 and 2024, across regions 75

Table 20. Health KPIs, 2014 and 2024, across regions 76

Table 21. Automotive KPIs, 2014 and 2024, across regions 78

Table 22. Outside the top 4 sectors - R&D across regions, 2014 and 2024, in EUR million 80

Table 23. Aerospace & defence KPIs, 2014 and 2024, across regions 82

Table 24. Chemicals KPIs, 2014 and 2024, across regions 83

Table 25. Construction & materials KPIs, 2014 and 2024, across regions 84

Table 26. Energy KPIs, 2014 and 2024, across regions 85

Table 27. Financial KPIs, 2014 and 2024, across regions 86

Table 28. Industrials KPIs, 2014 and 2024, across regions 87

Table 29. Others KPIs, 2014 and 2024, across regions 88

Table 30. EU Member States in the EU 800 sample, 2024 92

Table 31. EIS groups and the EU Scoreboard countries, EU 800 sample, 2014-2024 93

Table 32. Number of companies and R&D investment by sector in the EU 800, 2024 97

Table 33. EU 800 core and emerging groups, number of companies, R&D investment and growth rates by sector, 2024 98

Table 34. Sectoral distribution - Number of firms and R&D investment by EIS groups, 2024 99

Table 35. EU 800 nominal and inflation adjusted growth rates of R&D investment per sector in %, 2014-2024 101

Table 36. Business key performance indicators for the EIS groups, 2024 103

Table 37. Number of firms and R&D investment in 2014 and 2024 across size classes and EIS groups 107

Table 38. Business KPI across size classes, EU 800, 2024 109

Table 39. EU 800 companies with positive/negative R&D growth 2024, per country, EU core and EU emerging 112

Table 40. Share of international inventions in key technologies by ICB industries (2019-2021) 139

Table 41. Scoreboard firms in the top 10 by volume of inventions and green portfolio share in key technology areas and their ICB industries (2019-2021) 141

Table 42. Euro exchange rates 163

Table 43. Change in number of firms and R&D investment per country due to country reallocation, Top 2,000 companies from the Scoreboard 2024 167

Table 44. Change in number of firms and R&D investment per country due to country reallocation in 2023, EU 800 (Scoreboard 2024) 172

Figures 152

Figure 1. R&D investment growth by regions, top 2,000 companies, 2014-2024 10

Figure 2. R&D top sectors - R&D investment across regions 2014 and 2024 11

Figure 3. Evolution of top 5 (left) and top 50 (right) share of R&D, profits and sales among the top 2,000, 2011-2024 12

Figure 4. R&D investment flows US-EU and net R&D investment, 2013-2022 13

Figure 5. Map of EU 800 absolute R&D Investment by country 14

Figure 6. Specialisation index in key technology areas by major economy (2021) 15

Figure 7. Distribution of companies and R&D investment across regions, 2024 23

Figure 8. Top 2,000 R&D investment shares by region/country, 2014-2024 24

Figure 9. Ranking of the top 5 companies by R&D investment each year incl. Amazon, 2011-2024 25

Figure 10. World top 50 R&D investors in the 2025 Scoreboard 26

Figure 11. Distribution of R&D share by rank across two-year periods, 2011-2024 36

Figure 12. Concentration dynamics in R&D, patents and sales, Herfindahl-Hirschman Index, 2011-2024 37

Figure 13. Evolution of top 5 (left) and top 50 (right) share of R&D, profits and sales among the top 2,000, 2011-2024 39

Figure 14. R&D investment of the top 5 companies, EUR billion, 2011-2024 40

Figure 15. Nominal vs real R&D investment growth rates, top 2,000 companies, 2014-2024 42

Figure 16. Nominal vs real R&D investment growth EU, US and China, top 2,000 companies, 2014-2024 44

Figure 17. R&D investment growth decomposition by regions, top 2,000 companies, 2014-2024 45

Figure 18. Share of companies and R&D per region across size classes, 2024 47

Figure 19. Distribution of Scoreboard companies across regions and sectors, 2024 55

Figure 20. Geographical distribution of subsidiaries by country/region of the mother company, 2024 56

Figure 21. National and international subsidiaries of the top 2,000 companies by location, 2024 57

Figure 22. Number of subsidiaries of the top 2,000 by sector of the mother company, 2024 58

Figure 23. R&D investment by sector and country/region, 2024 62

Figure 24. Annual change in R&D investment by sector in EUR million - Sectoral breakdown, 2014-2024 67

Figure 25. R&D top sectors - R&D investment across regions 2014 and 2024 69

Figure 26. EU 800 Map, Treemap of top 5 countries 91

Figure 27. Number of firms (left panel) and R&D investment (right panel) by EIS group, 2014 vs 2024 94

Figure 28. EIS groups and EU total R&D investment growth rate, 2014-2024 95

Figure 29. EIS groups: share of companies with positive R&D investment growth, 2014-2024 96

Figure 30. Size classes and EIS groups, 2014-2024 106

Figure 31. R&D flows from and to the US and EU in million EUR, 2013-2023/2022 120

Figure 32. R&D investment flows US-EU and net R&D investment, 2013-2022 121

Figure 33. Top 10 countries investing R&D in US subsidiaries (inflows) 122

Figure 34. Top 10 countries investing R&D in US subsidiaries (inflows) 123

Figure 35. Total R&D net investment for the top inflow and outflow countries, 2013-2022 125

Figure 36. Regional distribution of patenting Scoreboard companies by edition of the report 127

Figure 37. Geographical distribution of patent inventors linked to the patent filings of Scoreboard company 127

Figure 38. Geographical distribution of patents: headquarters VS subsidiaries 128

Figure 39. R&D inflows to the US (left panel) and outflows from the US (right panel) by sector, 2013-2022 129

Figure 40. International green inventions, cumulative trends by major economies in absolute numbers (left) and as a global share (right) 133

Figure 41. International green inventions, as share of overall portfolio by applicant 134

Figure 42. Cumulative international green inventions for major economies 135

Figure 43. Specialisation index in key technology areas by major economy (2021) 136

Figure 44. The EU Member States' international inventions in green tech (2012-2021) 137

Figure 45. Share of international inventions in key green technologies in the EU (2012-2021) 138

Figure 46. Co-applications for all EU applicants (a) vs EU Scoreboard companies (b) (2019-2021) 139

Figure 47. Share of BES-R&D and GERD represented by the R&D Scoreboard between 2012 and 2023 165

Figure 48. Sankey diagram of R&D reallocation, 2023, top 2,000 170

Figure 49. Percentage point change in regional R&D shares due to country reclassification, 2011-2023 171

Figure 50. Regional distribution of R&D investment, old vs. new country classification, 2011-2023 171

Figure 51. Sankey diagram of R&D reallocation flows, 2023, EU 800 173

Figure 52. Share of R&D investment per country, EU 800, 2023 175

Figure 53. Share of companies per country, EU 800, 2023 176

Boxes 151

Box 1. M&A by the 'GAFAM' companies 41

Box 2. Size classes 46

Box 3. JRC-OECD COR&DIP database (2025 edition) 126

Box 4. Patenting trends: Methodology 132

Annex Boxes 151

Box A1. Methodological caveats 162