Europe's Private R&D Innovation Divide: Which Companies Lead in R&D Investment?

The 2025 EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard | IRI

Recently the European Commission published its Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard for 2024. It is remarkable the so many countries are (far) below the EU average in this sense. In fact, all sub-scandinavian countries, except Germany, spend below the EU average per employee on Research and Development.

Here is the top-20 ranking for individual companies:

These numbers are hard to interpret without looking at the same indicators in the world's other industrial power houses for which reliable data are availalbe, which leaves out China.

Key Observations from the EU Data:

• Germany dominates the list with the highest number of companies (227), the highest total sales (€1.88 trillion), and the highest total R&D spending (€118.6 billion).
• Denmark has the highest R&D spending per employee (~€44,792), driven largely by high-intensity pharmaceutical companies like Novo Nordisk.
• Romania shows a very high R&D per employee figure, but this is based on a single data point (Bitdefender Holding B.V.), which is a software security company with high R&D intensity relative to its size.
• France ranks second in total sales and R&D spending, maintaining a strong R&D per employee ratio of €18,740.
• Sweden and Finland also show strong innovation metrics, with R&D per employee figures exceeding €23,000 and €25,000 respectively.

Note: The "Grand Total" row represents the sum/average of the EU member states listed in the file. Companies with missing employee data were excluded from the denominator of the "per employee" calculation to ensure accuracy.