The Information Society Unit at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre – Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS) has released last May the 2010 Report on R&D in ICT in the European Union, providing an analysis of R&D investments in the EU ICT sector by combining 3 complementary perspectives: national statistics, company data and technology-based indicators.

This is the third report of a series which is published annually and it focuses on internationalisation of ICT R&D. The main findings and conclusions can be listed as follows:

• the ICT sector is a major R&D actor in the EU economy
• EU invests in the ICT R&D sector less than its main competitors (US, Japan, Korea), mainly because of the existence of a relatively smaller ICT sector and a lower ICT intensity in the EU
• EU R&D in the ICT sector is relatively concentrated in a few large Member States, notably Germany, France and the UK
• the investment of EU ICT sector companies in R&D can be compared to those of their US competitors (even if at an aggregate level EU ICT R&D investment is less than half that of the US)
• there is a significant increase in ICT patenting in the EU since the early 1990s
• EU remains an important location for ICT R&D – for both EU and non-EU companies – but Asia is gaining importance in this respect

The complete report is available here.