Global pharmaceutical R&D The global biopharmaceutical R&D community has been tasked with finding a cure for the COVID-19 virus. The global health-care industry, up until this pandemic, had been one of the best performing sectors for the investment community. But since the rapid global expansion of the COVID-19 virus in April 2020, it has been…
Global R&D Funding Forecast: Special mid-year update, Part 2
Putting COVID-19 in perspective The COVID-19 pandemic is not unique. There have been similar events throughout history, including the H1N1-based influenza pandemic (Spanish Flu), which started in 1918 and was estimated to result in 50 million deaths worldwide (and 675,000 in the U.S.). The H3N2-based Hong Kong flu pandemic in 1968 was estimated to be…
Global R&D Funding Forecast: Special mid-year update, Part 1
By Tim Studt This special editorial section is an update to R&D World’s 2020 Global R&D Funding Forecast (GFF), which has been published annually since January 1959 (the first issue of R&D World’s predecessor, Industrial Research). The original 2020 GFF was created and published in the February 2020 issue of R&D World (and online at www.rdworldonline.com)…
Addressing the fast-changing challenges of cybersecurity
What scientists and engineers need to know to help keep software, hardware and connected systems secure By Patricia Panchak, Contributing Writer In the cat-and-mouse struggle against bad actors in our inter-networked world, scientists and engineers are on the front lines. As developers of technology that can mean the difference between an adversarial breach and a…
Using metrics in R&D
By Anne Marie Knott To set the stage for a discussion of R&D metrics, let’s understand why companies do R&D in the first place. This takes us back to the beginning of the 20th Century. Companies formed labs to create new opportunities. In some cases, this was because existing business was disappearing and needed to…
EMBL launches first training program for research infrastructure scientists
Research infrastructures are increasingly important to research and development activity by providing access to the latest detection, imaging, computational and research techniques at scale. Maintaining and improving these infrastructures requires interdisciplinary skills bridging science, engineering, service provision and management, that are not usually provided by traditional training programs in academia or industry. “During the last years…
Expert views on global R&D collaboration, and roles of the U.S. and China
By Becky Chambers Hennessy Collaboration is among the flagship strategies of innovation for research scientists, engineers and technical professionals. Here, three R&D experts weigh in on China as it rises to become the world’s top R&D investor. They also address some of the benefits and challenges of openness in research, and the inclusion of foreign…
Global collaboration: Where does the U.S. stand with China?
A look at whether “to innovate, collaborate” is always the best strategy when it comes to global R&D By Becky Chambers Hennessy If ever there were a need for innovation through intellectual exchange and collaboration it is this: the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19), reportedly first identified in China. R&D experts worldwide know this, and the U.S.…
State-level R&D tax credits spur growth of new businesses
Peter Dizikes | MIT News Office According to a new study led by an MIT professor, the R&D tax credit has a significant effect on entrepreneurship. Moreover, the study finds a striking contrast between two types of tax credits. While the R&D tax credit fuels high-quality new-firm growth, the state-level investment tax credit, which supports…
Modernizing research administration solutions to improve response for future crises
By Matt McLellan, CEO Cayuse and Thomas Piechota, VP of Research, Chapman University As research groups work vigorously to continue to understand COVID-19 and develop a potential vaccine, inefficient research administration systems can lead to costly delays in securing and managing funding and allowing researchers to focus on what is important — the technical aspects…
Latest research on intellectual property management for manufacturers reveals IP is undervalued and underinsured
The Manufacturers Alliance for Productivity and Innovation (MAPI) and Aon (NYSE: AON), an international professional services firm providing a range of risk, retirement and health solutions, released “Beyond Patents: IP Strategy, Valuation, and Management in Manufacturing” that delves into the current state of intellectual property (IP) in the sector. At its core, the research found…
Creating an R&D budget
The assembly of an R&D budget is a complicated process, often involving inputs from multiple organizations and/or departments. It also involves getting approvals from supervisors, from supervisors’ supervisors, and from other people with whom you may not work outside budgeting times. There are multiple factors involved in creating an R&D budget, from revenue growth to…
SP Industries appoints Robert Darrington Vice President of Research & Development
SP Industries (SP) CEO Brian Larkin has announced Robert (Rob) Darrington as the company’s new Vice President of Research & Development. Darrington was originally tapped to lead the department as well as serve on the SP Executive Leadership Team in an interim role in October of 2019. In announcing the permanent appointment, Larkin stated “Rob’s…
Current R&D challenges
Technology growth in the R&D environment appears to be continuous and without much letup or increase in the rate of change. According to the respondents to R&D World magazine’s 2020 Global R&D Funding Forecast reader survey, performed in September 2019, most researchers have seen significant technology changes over the past year (September 2018 to September…
Innovation via industry
In the U.S., about 66% of the R&D is performed by industrial organizations, 27% is performed by the federal government and the remaining 7% is performed by academia and non-profit organizations. In Mexico, those ratios are about 51% by industry, 19% by government and 27% by academia. In Sweden it’s 74% by industry, 13% by…
Opportunities for Federal R&D dollars
Facing a Federal government shutdown deadline at midnight on Dec. 20th, a Presidential impeachment vote (on Dec. 18th) with a highly polarized Congress, the U.S. Congress, Senate and Administration voted on and signed into law (just hours before the Dec. 20th shutdown deadline) its final appropriations package for FY2020. The package included the Consolidated Appropriations…
In pursuit of innovation: Murata launches Open Innovation website
Murata Manufacturing announces the launch of its Open Innovation website to create collaborative relationships with start-up organizations developing solutions in the mobility, energy, healthcare, and wireless markets. With its specific focus on start-up companies and universities, the site provides them the opportunity to explore go-to-market plans leveraging Murata’s extensive R&D capabilities, manufacturing support capabilities, and…
U.S. R&D buoyed by government support
[Note: this report was finalized before the current COVID-19 crisis began.] We forecast the U.S. will invest $609.7 billion in R&D in 2020, an increase of 2.2% over the $596.6 billion invested in 2019. U.S. industrial organizations will invest approximately $401.8 billion, a 65.9% share of the total investment. The U.S. government will invest about…
Cypris startup seeks to correct poor patent commercialization statistics
In November of 2019 Steve Hafif launched Cypris, an online patent marketplace providing inventors, patent researchers and the general public access to an innovative platform that will change the face of the IP industry. In four months, Cypris has accumulated over 600 patent opportunities, is currently hosting listings for seven leading Universities and has recently…
Global R&D investments unabated in spending growth
With this report, R&D World magazine presents — for the 61st time — its annual global R&D funding forecast. This forecast presents unique data on the cumulative resources expected to be invested over the next twelve months by more than 115 countries, numerous industries, universities and governments and innumerable technologies. The world and the science…
5 major advancements that would be eligible for R&D tax credits today
R&D has been changing the world before the term was even coined and in these cases, the impact of the developments made have changed the human race and created the modern world as we know it. “Of course, had these advancements been made today, the work carried out to develop them would have qualified for…
Planbox sponsors research report on delivering quick wins
Planbox, a pioneering cloud-based AI-powered agile innovation management platform, partnered with Innovation Leader, an independent media and events company focused on helping change-makers in large organizations, to develop a research report on “Quick Wins: Data and Case Studies on Delivering Results Fast.” Complete with case studies about successful innovation initiatives from Mitsubishi, BNP Paribas, Duke…
The New Scientific Workplace: Getting More with Less
Within the next 10 years, it is estimated that researchers will spend up to 30 percent more time in meetings and their offices, and 20 percent less time in their laboratories. Tomorrow’s research organizations need to be agile, efficient and effective to keep up with the demands of shareholders and customers. Speed to market continues…
NIST Director: Improving Tech Transfer of Federally Funded R&D Key to U.S. Competitiveness
The U.S. government invests a significant amount of money to further research and technology innovation. In 2017, the federal government invested approximately $150 billion in R&D— about one-third at the 17 federal laboratories across the country and two-thirds at universities and private sector R&D institutions, according to government reports. This represents about one-third of all…
MYTH BUSTING The best way to use pure water in the lab
Water is an excellent and non-toxic solvent. That is why life on Earth is so dependent on it, and why it is the reagent of choice for much wet laboratory work across many scientific fields, including biology, chemistry, and physics. However, for the researcher, the strong solvent properties of water can pose a problem: it…