New statistics show EU's regional R&D expenditure highly concentrated
More than half of all high-tech patents submitted to the European Patent Office (EPO) in 2000 came from just 13 out of 211 EU regions, according to two new reports published on 13 March by Eurostat, the European Community's statistical office. In 2000, over 57,000 applications for patents were submitted to the European Patent Office (EPO) by the EU, including 10,500 high-tech patent applications. Over half of the high-tech applications submitted came from just 13 EU regions. The Member State that accounted for most patent applications in the EU was Germany, with 42 per cent of applications. The statistics also reveal a sharp increase in the number of high-tech patent applications lodged with the EPO between 1995 and 2000. During this period the number of high-tech patents submitted increased by an average of 22 per cent per year, twice the rate of increase for patents in general. Three regions in Europe stood out from the rest for the number of high-tech patents filed in 2000: Oberbayern (Germany) with 1.132 applications, Ile-de-France (France) with 854 and Noord-Brabant (the Netherlands) with 633. When the number of patent applications in 2000 is related to the size of a region's labour force, Oberbayern, Uusimaa and Noord-Brabant represent the three strongest performers. The reports also note that 'a strong concentration of R&D in one or two regions of a Member State is a common feature.' In eight of the 12 Member States made up of more than two level two NUTS (nomenclature of territorial units for statistics) regions, a single region accounted for more than a third of all national patent applications in 2000. Attiki accounted for 66 per cent of national applications in Greece, Uusimaa for 49 per cent in Finland, Lisboa e Vale do Tejo for 47 per cent in Portugal and Noord-Brabant for 46 per cent in the Netherlands.