Global Research and development almost $1.2 trillion in 2011

2011 Global R&D Funding Forecast – Battelle, 36 pages

Total global spending on R and D in 2011 is anticipated to increase 3.6%, to almost $1.2 trillion. With Asia’s stake continuing to increase, the geographic distribution of this investment will continue a shift begun more than five years ago. The U.S., however, still dominates absolute spending at a level well above its share of global GDP.

The Battelle/R and D Magazine team forecasts that U.S. R and D will grow by only 2.4% (equal to the global median rate) over the final 2010 estimate, reaching $405.3 billion in 2011. With 2011 inflation forecasted to remain a low 1.5%, this growth in R&D still leads to 0.86% ($3.4 billion) growth in real terms.

No segment has a stronger connection to public R and D investment than aerospace, defense, and national security. The U.S. and many foreign governments invest massive amounts on defense and security-related R and D every year. As an illustration of the scale, the U.S. government will spend more on defense R and D in 2011 (about $80 billion) than our estimates of total R and D (government, corporate and academic) for every country in our global analysis except the top three.

$139 billion is spent on Electronics and computer hardware research and development.

$138 billion is spent on Life Science research and development.
Perceived leading topic areas (although not necessarily leading by research funding) of life science research are
1. Tissue Engineering
2. Stem Cell Development
3. Proteomics
4. Pharma Development
5. Personlized Medicine
6. Medical Implants
7. Drug Delivery
8. Automated Healthcare

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