Global R&D data

Here's a roundup of useful sources for data on global research and development (with a focus on corporate R&D). Some sources were featured in earlier posts.

General indicators

UNESCO statistics cover national data on number of researchers, technicians etc., proportion of women researchers, gross R&D expenditure, education level - among others.

World Development Indicators from the World Bank include some similar numbers as well as royalties and license fees, value added, ICT expenditures, highly skilled IT workers, scientific journal articles.

The World Bank's Knowledge Assessment Methodology compiles and compares various variables that are relevant to the knowledge economy. Composite, normalized indicators can be viewed as rankings, scorecards and maps. But you can also create your own graphs and tables. Most relevant R&D indicators are included.

The World Intellectual Property Organization provides WIPO Industrial Property Statistics collected from member countries on patents, trademarks, utility models, designs, plant varieties and microorganisms.

OECD science, technology and patent data. (Some datasets include major non-member countries, such as India, China and Brazil.)

For the US: NSF statistics on the science and engineering workforce available at SESTAT

On the globalization of corporate R&D and the impact of multinationals, especially in developing countries

UNCTAD has 3 particularly useful publications (all from 2005).

- WIR 2005. World Investment Report 2005: TNCs and the internationalization of R&D
- UNCTAD survey on the internationalization of R&D: Current patterns and prospects on the internationalization of R&D
- Globalization of R&D and developing countries. Expert Meeting, Geneva, January 2005
Also from UNCTAD: The UNCTAD Innovation Capability Index, first published in WIR 2005.

The internationalization of corporate R&D: Leveraging the changing geography of innovation. ITPS 2006. This includes country-specific case studies, incl. China and India.

5 surveys of corporate global R&D:

- Harnessing innovation: R&D in a global growth economy (Economist Intelligence Unit, May 2004)
- Scattering the seeds of invention: The globalisation of research and development (Economist Intelligence Unit, September 2004)
- Innovation: Is global the way forward? (INSEAD and Booz Allen Hamilton, 2006. Survey conducted May 2005)
- Innovation 2006. Annual innovation survey by The Boston Consulting Group
- R&D 100, 2005. IEEE Spectrum's Annual Survey of the top 100 R&D spenders