The UK’s biggest investors in R&D

Table 1 lists the 25 UK companies investing the most in R&D in 2008. The top six remain unchanged from the previous year’s Scoreboard, and of these only BT decreased its overall R&D investment. As in 2007, GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca, in the pharmaceuticals and biotechnology sector, retained their big lead, investing £7.2 billion between them, up from £6.7 billion last year. Their joint share of the UK1000 total R&D investment was 27%.

The biggest climbers in the Top 25 were Barclays, HSBC and Tesco. In comparison with the 2008 Scoreboard, Barclays more than doubled its investment in R&D (132%), rising from bottom of the list to fifteenth position. Airbus remained the largest R&D investor among foreign-owned UK companies (£494 million), having increased its spending on R&D after a decrease in 2008 Scoreboard. Automobiles and parts companies in the Top 25 gave ground, with Ford dropping another two places in the 2009 Scoreboard to eleventh and Jaguar dropping three places to 20th. Reuters, the only media company among the top 25 companies in 2007, dropped off the list.

Table 1: Top 25 UK companies by R&D expenditure

Two companies from the mining sector were the highest new entrants: Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton between them invested £384 million, with the former more than quadrupling its investment in R&D over the previous year. Finally, two software and computer services companies, Amdocs and Sage, joined the Top 25 following a gradual increase in their R&D spending every year since 2004.