Universitat de Barcelona Business School researchers Paloma Miravitlles, Fariza Achcaoucaou, Ana Núñez-Carballosa and Laura Guitart-Tarrés have published the article Is Spain losing out on international investment in R&D? in the latest dossier of the Social Observatory of “la Caixa” entitled Research and innovation: what are our stakes?

The report was officially presented in Madrid on September 20th 2017 by the Chief Executive Officer and the Corporate Director of of the Research and Strategy Area of the “la Caixa” Banking Foundation, Jaume Giró and Àngel Font, UB Business School researcher Paloma Miravitlles and the director of the CSIC Institute of Public Goods and Policies, Luis Sanz Menéndez.

The rise of the emerging countries as a new destination for the R&D of multinational companies constitutes the starting point for the article by our researchers. The authors analyse how the leadership of the developed countries is being weakened and examine which factors influence the attraction of high added value foreign investment. The article also examines possible measures that could improve Spain’s outlook.

This research shows that countries such as Brazil, Russia, India and China are gaining ground on the map of international location for R&D, occupying part of a space that was previously dominated by the United States, Japan and Germany. Moderate innovators such as Spain are experiencing a loss of the competitive advantages offered. In this case, the challenge consists of strengthening its innovation system before BRIC countries catch up with it.

The Social Observatory of “la Caixa” is an initiative created with the purpose of contributing ideas and scientifically supported results that will enrich public debate over the social problems. This initiative publishes a series of important indicators, which are complemented by original studies on important social issues, interviews with scientists and critical reviews of recent books.