Well invested

With investments in research and development of US $450 billion (equivalent to €390 billion), the USA leads the world, followed by China (US $333 billion and/or €288 billion), Japan (US $160 billion and/or  €138 billion), and Germany (US $100 billion and/or €86 billion). These data have been published in Fact Sheet No. 36 of the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS). This ranking can be evaluated differently when placing the absolute figures in relation to the respective gross domestic products (GDP). Then, South Korea with a rate of 4.3 % of GDP ranks first, followed by Israel (4.1 %) and Japan (3.6 %).

Germany attains a rate of just under 3 %. The investment rate of Germany’s SMI ranges as low as 2 %. And quite a few small and medium-sized companies most likely have to scrimp and save to come up with even these amounts – and this despite the fact that they would be most affected by the rise in global competition.

This makes all the more important the work of institutions such as the Institute for Applied Construction Research (IAB) in Weimar, Germany, and the Centre d’études et de recherches de l’industrie du béton (Cerib) in Épernon, France. These institutions, financed partly by subsidies from state and private industry and partly by their own research projects, offer companies the possibilities for initial and ongoing development of products and processes.

These two successful international research institutions celebrate an anniversary this year – for which the team at BFT would like to take this opportunity to congratulate them warmly once again. You will find in this issue of your technical journal a report on the 25th anniversary of IAB Weimar and on the Web site, additional photos and a video. We will report on the 50th Anniversary of Cerib in issue 09/2017.