European R&D declines as India and China rise
Booming Asian economies are attracting more commercial research, says report
India and China will host 77 per cent of all new commercial research sites over the next three years, according to a report by consultant Booz Allen Hamilton.
Created in partnership with business school Insead, the report Innovation: Is global the way forward? also suggests the US and European share of research and development (R&D) sites is in a continuing decline.
Barry Jaruzelski, vice president of Booz Allen Hamilton's innovation practice, says much of the R&D investment into China and India is for high technology research.
'Lower costs in these territories are a significant factor at between 25 and 30 per cent, but the most important reason for investment in India and China is proximity to the local marketplace,' he said.
'Take mobile phones; you need to have products that appeal to the unique needs of Chinese or Indian consumers, so you need to have engineers who understand the unique needs of that market.'
Walter Herriott, managing director of the St. Johns Innovation Centre at Cambridge University, says he is worried about the relative decline of research in western countries.
'India and China have made a quantum leap, and European commerce seems to be content to slip into a sort of gentile old age,' he said.
'We still have world class universities which are still at the cutting edge, but we need to make sure our technical leading edge is matched by investment and business skills so innovators here can be encouraged to develop their ideas.'
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