The 2025 EU industrial R&I investment Scoreboard reveals moderate growth, but performance varies across sectors.
The 2025 EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard reveals a slowdown in overall R&D investment growth among EU companies. Against this trend, the European health and energy sectors increased their R&D investments well above global peers.
Produced since 2004 by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre in collaboration with the Directorate General Research & Innovation, the EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard provides economic information from the latest financial accounts of the world’s top 2000 R&D investors. It also includes an extended sample of the top 800 R&D investing companies based in the EU. Investments from the companies covered in the Scoreboard account for almost 90% of global private R&D funding.
EU: Health and energy sectors shine in a year of slowdown
In 2024, EU-headquartered companies reported a total R&D investment of €233.8 billion. This is an investment growth rate of 2.9%, down from 9.3% in 2023.
Despite this overall slowdown, there were bright spots in specific sectors. EU companies in the health sector increased R&D investments by 13%, outperforming other regions such as the United States (7.1%), Japan (9.1%), and China (0.1%). Similarly, the EU’s energy sector, especially companies focusing on electricity and renewable energy, experienced a 19.8% increase, outpacing global competitors like the United States (6%), Japan (-14.2%), and China (3.8%).
However, performance varied across sectors. The EU ICT sector declined investments by 8.9%. Meanwhile, the automotive industry, the EU’s largest R&D investor at €87 billion, showed stagnation (0.8% growth rate), lagging behind China (11.9%) and Japan (12.3%) growth rates.